In the coming days, five Iranian oil tankers are set to evade U.S. sanctions by showing up in Venezuela’s ports with around $45.5 million worth of gasoline. Amid calls for the U.S. government to stop this, Nicolas Maduro’s defense minister said Wednesday that Venezuelan ships will escort the Iranian tankers. This criminal exchange is just one part of a growing global authoritarian nexus that will continue expanding until the United States government decides to stand up for the Venezuelan people forcefully by blockading Maduro’s autocratic allies.

Tehran is starving for money amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and Caracas is starving for gasoline. Why would Venezuela, the country with the largest crude oil reserves in the world, face a fuel shortage? In a word, socialism.