WASHINGTON—Today, The Heritage Foundation’s national security and defense experts demanded answers from the Biden-Harris White House regarding Latin America. President Biden’s call for a new presidential election in Venezuela is at odds with his National Security Council’s position. These inconsistent positions raise questions about the current leadership situation and direction at the White House.   

Heritage Vice President for National Security and Foreign Policy Victoria Coates made the following statement:  

“Americans deserve to know who is driving policy at the White House, especially on issues central to their security. It appears that Biden-Harris administration apparatchiks have all but taken over the commander-in-chief role.

“The response to the obviously fraudulent election in Venezuela should not be continuing the farce of keeping a socialist regime in power. A strong U.S. president would lower the boom on dictator Nicolas Maduro by reinstating the sanctions Biden and Harris lifted and pressuring American industries to shun the Venezuelan regime, especially the senior military officers that are enforcing Maduro’s police state. 

“The public should be apprehensive about President Biden’s inner circle of advisors who are apparently calling the shots, including Vice President Harris, the ‘last person in the room.’ These individuals have publicly embraced Marxist policies in Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. They seek to keep those regimes in place and to transform the United States into these failed states, and in many ways, have already done so as seen by our nation’s soaring inflation and overreaching government policies.

“America’s national security is at risk with unelected bureaucrats advocating for systems fundamentally opposed to American values.” 

Heritage Director of the Allison Center for National Security Robert Greenway added:  

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s disastrous foreign policy decisions have placed vital U.S. interests and American citizens at risk across the globe.

“Their latest approach towards Venezuela and Latin America emboldens our adversaries and is deeply troubling, suggesting either a profound incompetence or a willful attempt to undermine our national interests to assuage domestic political constituencies. Both scenarios are unacceptable.

“With President Biden in absentia and Vice President Kamala Harris focused on her campaign, who is directing Latin American foreign policy?”