American Socialists Have a Prisoner They Want Freed

Socialist governments across the globe are renowned for regularly imprisoning political opposition, people of faith, and various other dissidents. But socialists in America want one freed. His name is Nicolás Maduro, and today he sits in a Brooklyn jail cell awaiting trial on federal drug-trafficking and weapons charges.

He’s not a president “kidnapped” by the United States, as many loud voices love to claim. Maduro is the former Venezuelan dictator whose regime destroyed my family’s livelihood, tortured my cousin, accused me of terrorism and, importantly, harmed American citizens. Yet the Democratic Socialists of America formally demands Maduro’s return to Venezuela.

This is not merely a foreign policy position. It is a logical conclusion from what socialists in America have been clear about for years: Eradicate American values of self-government, individualism, and capitalism. Now the DSA has put a face to a name.

Maduro was not simply a bad president. He is an indicted narco-terrorist who committed crimes against Americans. 

The U.S. Department of Justice first indicted him in 2020 for building some of the world’s most violent drug trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations to move cocaine into the United States. Drug trafficking was not Maduro’s only crime. The regime ran an official government conspiracy of sending violent criminals to the United States with the not-so-secret goal to subvert this country. Among them were members of the dangerous gang Tren de Aragua who were responsible for countless armed robberies, sexual assaults, and for the vicious murders of Laken Riley and of Jocelyn Nungaray. 

The DSA is not merely asking for due process for Nicolas Maduro. The socialists’ official statement insists there is “no substantiated evidence” senior Venezuelan officials are narco-terrorists. The DSA then demands “a return of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores to Venezuela.” That wording matters.

The DSA still calls Maduro “president,”—a dictator who “won” elections most international observers concluded were stolen. Neither Trump nor Biden recognized Maduro as president. 

I know Maduro firsthand because his regime accused me of being a terrorist.

I was born in Venezuela and lived the failures of socialism. Inflation, price controls, and government control of the economy forced my parents to close our cosmetics business. They made sacrifices and sometimes went without food so I could eat.

Those experiences inspired me to become an activist against Maduro’s regime.

I spoke publicly for capitalism and liberty. I was soon expelled from school, labeled a “terrorist” under the so-called “Law Against Hatred,” and threatened with as many as 20 years in prison.

My cousin had already been tortured by Maduro’s regime and spent more than two years behind bars as a political prisoner. My family did not want the same for me, so I fled. I immigrated legally to the United States and received asylum.

America saved my life. But while millions like me were fleeing Venezuela’s socialist nightmare, the DSA went there, met with Maduro, and praised its economic failures.

In 2021, the DSA sent what it called a “historic delegation” to Venezuela. Its members traveled the country, visited with Maduro, and said they witnessed “the construction of Venezuelan socialism.” They somehow said this with a straight-face while 94 percent of the Venezuelans lived in poverty, hundreds of political prisoners remained behind bars, and millions had already escaped.

The DSA delegation did not visit Venezuela to confront Maduro over political prisoners, torture, hunger, nor stolen elections. It wasn’t an accident. The DSA delegates went in socialist solidarity.

The DSA wants Maduro freed because, ideologically, it is Nicolás Maduro. 

Hugo Chávez, the socialist dictator who ruled before Maduro, rewrote Venezuela’s constitution and abolished the Senate. Socialists there expanded state control over the economy and expropriated farms, factories, banks, supermarkets, and private businesses. 

Sound familiar? The DSA has proposed rewriting the U.S. Constitution and abolishing the Senate. It promotes public ownership of major sectors of the American economy. These are structural ideas with very real precedents in Venezuela.

American socialists do not defend Maduro on policy or legal grounds. They defend Maduro out of ideological sympathy.

Maduro is not a symbol of resistance. He is the symbol of a system that took our businesses, our freedom, our family members, and our country. He also killed Americans by sending Tren de Aragua criminals and drugs into the United States.

For years, the DSA has told Americans what system it wants to build. By demanding Nicolás Maduro’s return, it is also showing us the lives they are willing to destroy along the way.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

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