And the difference between our country and Maduro's is ….

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Biden WH 'Concerned' About Venezuelan Ballot Candidate Exclusion

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday, “Obviously, we’re deeply concerned by the National Electoral Council’s decision to prevent the registration of … the democratic opposition party’s candidate, Dr. Corina Yoris.”

KJP continued her thoroughly ironic comments: “We are wor[k]ing with other members of the international community to ensure that Venezuelans can participate in inclusive and competitive elections and urge representatives of Maduro to allow all candidates to run. We support the will and right of Venezuelans and the Venezuelans’ political parties to select presidential candidates. We are monitoring the situation closely. ”

Monitoring just to make sure they haven’t missed any tricks.

Here’s a Democrat Party election, southern style:

Last summer the regime of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro announced that leading opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado was ineligible to run for office. The country hadn't held an election in five years at that point but Machado was expected to be the leading candidate if the current government agreed to hold an election.

The opposition held a primary to decide who would face off with Maduro and, as expected, Machado won despite the government sending out its colectivo thugs on motorbikes to harass opposition voters.

Machado hoped that a clear win in the primary would embarrass the socialist government into allowing her on the ballot, but in January the country's Supreme Court, which is made up of Maduro loyalists, ruled she would not be allowed to run.

Apparently ruling her out of the process wasn't enough for Maduro. Last week, his government announced that it was arresting her campaign manager and other members of her staff.

Venezuela’s top prosecutor on Wednesday announced arrest warrants for the presidential campaign manager of opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado and eight other staffers, accusing them involvement in a violent anti-government conspiracy...

Saab said the warrants stemmed from what he called a confession by another Machado staff member, Emill Brandt, who was detained earlier this month and whose attorney, Omar Mora, told The Associated Press he has been denied legal counsel of his choice.

Machado, who has insisted on pressing forward with her campaign despite an administrative ban on her holding office, accused the government of unleashing “brutal repression against my campaign teams.”

The announcement of the arrest warrants came hours after an independent panel of experts investigating human rights violations in Venezuela told the U.N. Human Rights Council that the government of President Nicolás Maduro had increased repression efforts against real or perceived opponents ahead of this year’s presidential election.

The arrest of Machado's political coordinator, Dignora Hernández, was caught on video. That's her screaming for help as a group of police shove her into the back of an SUV.