Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, thumbs his nose at Joe Biden

In the unlikely event that a free and fair election were to be held in Venezuela this year, Nicolás Maduro, its , would almost certainly be voted out of office. That is especially true were he to face María Corina Machado, a who won the opposition primary last October with 92% of the vote. One poll in November found that 70% of those surveyed said they would elect her, with just 9% supporting Mr Maduro. So it came as little surprise when, on January 27th, a Supreme Court stuffed with his cronies ratified a ban on Ms Machado seeking any political office for 15 years.The move was swiftly justified by spokesmen spouting the regime’s twisted logic. Prohibiting the country’s most popular politician from being on the ballot papers was nothing other than a valiant defence of democracy, they insisted. “We want elections which are competitive for everyone, free for all,” claimed Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the government’s rubber-stamp National Assembly. He then added that there was no way “that woman” would ever be a candidate.