WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday released the following statement on the sham elections in Venezuela:

“To nobody’s surprise, the Maduro regime won the sham elections on Sunday in Venezuela. Nothing about these elections were free and fair, and without any credible electoral path on the horizon, I worry that the situation will continue to deteriorate as the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign continues to deliver nothing,” said Murphy. “Freeing political prisoners and widening humanitarian access must be top of mind for the international community as we push for meaningful progress in Venezuela. We should also explore some sanctions relief in exchange for a return to negotiations, rather than solely relying on feckless sanctions that clearly aren’t meeting U.S. national security objectives. The only way out of this crisis is a negotiated solution, and the United States needs to commit to diplomacy to achieve that goal.”

In January 2019, Murphy and Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor during the Obama administration wrote a Washington Post op-ed making the case that Democrats should stand for democracy in Venezuela. Later in 2019, Murphy also proposed an “oil-for-peace” program for Venezuela as a means to address the food crisis there and reverse the administration’s disastrous miscalculations in a Univision op-ed.

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