@aaronjmate
Ahead of Venezuela's election, John Bolton admitted to the Washington Post that he knew that the Trump admin's crippling sanctions and coup attempt against Venezuela would destroy its economy and force millions to flee:
“There was no doubt the sanctions, along with the general economic deterioration before we imposed them, was driving a lot of people out of the country,” Bolton said. “ … That, to me, was a way to put pressure on the country.”
Did any Venezuelans vote for John Bolton, Donald Trump, or Joe Biden (who initially continued the Trump policy) to destroy their economy? Does Trump, who constantly rails against undocumented immigrants, ever take responsibility for knowingly creating millions of them?
Those are pertinent questions as we address the sincerity and credibility of bipartisan US establishment figures who will now question Venezuela's election and denounce Maduro as "autocratic."
To me, there's nothing more autocratic than trying to impoverish a foreign country and install a new government there.
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The Washington Post | Democracy Dies in Darkness
The disputes went all the way to Trump's Cabinet. In January or February 2019, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed concern to Bolton over potential collateral damage from tighter sanctions, Bolton recalled in an interview.
[Highlighted paragraph] "There was no doubt the sanctions, along with the general economic deterioration before we imposed them, was driving a lot of people out of the country," Bolton said. " ... That, to me, was a way to put pressure on the country."
