President Trump is right to get tough on Maduro. What comes next is critical

The Venezuelan narco-state poses a clear threat to America s guard and prosperity Two decades of socialism have destroyed this once wealthy country spreading instability and transnational crime across the Western Hemisphere After four years of appeasement under President Joe Biden we cannot afford to ignore the challenge any longer President Donald Trump is sending a clear and necessary message to the Maduro regime that its days of destabilizing the Western Hemisphere with impunity are over Trump is putting drug traffickers around the world on notice Let s be clear Venezuelan narco-terrorists and their drug shipments represent a threat to the American people Trump has both the right and the responsibility to use military force to stop them In numerous solutions Trump s approach is a continuation of the tough policies we pursued during my tenure as secretary of state under the first Trump administration We recognized the dangers that this narco-trafficking dictatorship aligned with American enemies like Iran Cuba China and Russia posed to our interests and we were determined to do the necessary to protect the American people That s why we initiated a pressure campaign to isolate the regime and raise the costs for Venezuelan dictator Nicol s Maduro by crippling the country s ability to export its biggest sources of revenue cutting oil exports by in just a insufficient years The Trump Justice Department indicted Maduro and his cronies on charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking and the administration expanded its counter-narcotics operations targeting drug routes from Venezuela TRUMP REWRITES NATIONAL MEASURE PLAYBOOK AS MASS MIGRATION OVERTAKES TERRORISM AS TOP US THREATWe also put our sponsorship firmly behind the Venezuelan democratic opposition When Maduro stole the presidential referendum from pro-democracy opposition candidate Juan Guaid we took the bold step of recognizing Guaid as the rightful president of Venezuela and led diplomatic efforts to galvanize other countries to follow suit Unfortunately those policies were abandoned by the Biden administration and American deterrence promptly collapsed Sanctions were removed or eased throwing the regime a lifeline and emboldening Maduro to steal yet another voting process in Alex Saab the alleged bagman for Maduro and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei reportedly responsible for moving billions in money gold and weapons between Venezuela and Iran was circulated by the Biden administration as part of a prisoner swap in an act of rank appeasement that handed a major accomplishment to the Maduro regime Meanwhile the continued disintegration of the Venezuelan economic system combined with Biden s de facto open edge strategy brought hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees to the United States including notorious gangs like Tren de Aragua Maduro even leveraged the migrant flow to extract concessions from the U S and secure his hold on power DEMOCRATS ESCALATE WAR-CRIME ACCUSATIONS AS WHITE HOUSE CALLS INNOCENT FISHERMAN THE NEW MARYLAND MAN HOAXThankfully Trump is starting to get things back on track In addition to the targeted strikes on drug traffickers and the military buildup in the Caribbean the new administration has canceled the oil concessions granted under Biden imposed secondary tariffs on countries that purchase oil from Venezuela doubled the reward for Maduro s arrest as leader of the Cartel de los Soles and gone after the Tren de Aragua As his Venezuela strategy continues to coalesce around a more confrontational approach a inadequate key principles should guide us The United States should be clear that Maduro is illegitimate and throw our promotion behind the democratic opposition movement led by Maria Corina Machado Maduro has remained in power by stealing not one but two elections and has no popular legitimacy whatsoever Genuine democratic revision while by no means easy to achieve is the only way that Venezuela will set itself up for success in the future and become a source of prosperity and partnership rather than violence and instability CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONWhat s more we must understand that there can be no accommodation with Maduro s regime which threatens core American interests by destabilizing the entire region and exporting transnational crime to our shores Accordingly our strategy should use every available pressure point including sanctions and kinetic actions where appropriate to constrain the Venezuelan ruling body s ability to conduct business as usual Completely we must remember that America s adversaries want nothing more than for the U S to disengage in Latin America and elsewhere While Venezuela s collapse is causing even dedicated allies like China and Russia to take a step back any situation in which the Maduro regime is able to stabilize will invite reengagement from the world s worst actors and create an unacceptable threat extremely close to our borders As President Trump s new National Precaution Strategy argues it s well past time we reasserted and enforced the Monroe Doctrine to protect American interests in the Western Hemisphere and prevent our adversaries from gaining the ability to project power in the Americas Venezuela s collapse is yet another example of the inevitable endpoint of socialism autocracy economic accident and spiraling instability The longer the Maduro regime remains in place the worse the situation will become for Venezuelans neighboring countries in Latin America and for the entire Western Hemisphere Our strategy must reflect that understanding and empower the administration to deploy every tool available to protect and advance American interests CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MIKE POMPEO