The U.S. government should ban imports of Venezuelan oil. Yes, this would represent a major escalation to existing U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, but it’s the only viable response to President Maduro’s latest attack on democracy.

Maduro’s most recent democratic theft came Sunday, when the president’s United Socialist Party claimed victory in 17 out of 23 gubernatorial races. We can be confident that those results are a theft, in that sustained pre-vote polling that showed Maduro’s party had only marginal support. As the BBC notes, “A poll conducted by private firm Datanalisis before the election suggested 45 percent of voters intended to vote for opposition candidates and 21 percent for the governing socialist party candidates.”