While Washington was arguing over the viability of President Trump’s proposal to annex Greenland, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro held a sham inauguration in Caracas for his third term in power and threatened to invade Puerto Rico.

Flooding the U.S. with refugees while aligning himself with America’s enemies, Maduro has made himself an enduring bipartisan headache for the last decade.

While renewed attention to the long-neglected Western Hemisphere is welcome, the Trump administration would be remiss if it were to solely focus its efforts up north. To the south, unseating Maduro in Venezuela presents an opportunity to make good on Trump’s promise to tackle surging immigration, while simultaneously neutralizing a geopolitical threat in America’s backyard.

Former President Joe Biden’s failure to unseat Maduro is the last mark on a checkered foreign policy record. But Trump has an opportunity to make Venezuela his first foreign policy success by avoiding his predecessor’s mistakes and taking a more aggressive posture toward Caracas.

Maduro’s inauguration was the capstone of a fraught policy of appeasement from the Biden White House.

In mid-2023, Biden faced a two-pronged Venezuela conundrum. The first was the surging numbers of Venezuelan refugees entering the U.S. The second was the sham election that just took place, motivating even more Venezuelans to flee the country.

With immigration a hot-button domestic issue and the upcoming 2024 U.S. election in mind, the Biden........

© The Hill