Seven months after Trump intervention, US senators seek Venezuela elections
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Talks between Venezuela’s interim government and a faction of the opposition are set to begin in the coming days.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- US senators from both parties introduced a resolution urging free and fair elections in Venezuela and the release of political prisoners.
- The resolution criticises the Trump administration's failure to bring significant change since replacing Maduro with acting President Delcy Rodriguez.
- Opposition talks are starting without key leader Maria Corina Machado, who remains sidelined despite her Nobel Prize and intent to return to Venezuela.
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WASHINGTON – A group of Republican and Democratic US senators on Aug 4 called for elections in Venezuela, seven months after President Donald Trump’s administration removed then President Nicolas Maduro and installed his vice-president as acting president.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire introduced a resolution reaffirming US support for elections in Venezuela, calling for the release of political prisoners and saying that anyone – including senior government figures – should be punished if they are responsible for harming anyone seeking public office.
The bipartisan resolution comes amid increased frustration over what critics see as the Trump administration’s failure to effect real change in Venezuela by pushing Venezuela’s government, now led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez, toward free and fair elections.
Talks between Venezuela’s interim government and a faction of the opposition are set to begin in the coming days, but without Maria Corina Machado, the country’s most popular opposition leader.
“The people of Venezuela deserve free, fair, and transparent elections, and it is vital to the national security interests of the United States that those elections occur expeditiously,” Cruz, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
Shaheen, the committee’s top Democrat, said authorities in Caracas must release all political prisoners and allow all political actors, including Machado, to safely return and participate in political activity.
The resolution has five other co-sponsors, four Democrats and one Republican.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado left Venezuela late in 2025 to receive her Nobel after living mostly in hiding since a contested 2024 presidential election. She has vowed to return to help with the response to June’s devastating twin earthquakes, frustrating US officials who believe it is not the right time.
Trump has denied media reports that his administration told Machado not to return. Machado has repeatedly been publicly sidelined by Washington since Maduro’s removal, with US officials saying she does not have enough support to lead the country. REUTERS
