Last week at a conference in Miami, the director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, Juan Cruz, took aim at the regime of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.

Mr. Cruz cited part of the Venezuelan Constitution, drafted under Mr. Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez, that says the people “shall disown any regime, legislation or authority that violates the values, principles and democratic guarantees or encroaches upon human rights.” He was directing his comments at the Venezuelan military, imploring its members to honor their commitment to the Constitution.

As when Rex Tillerson made similar statements in February as secretary of state, Mr. Cruz’s critics said that it was unwise for Washington to encourage a coup d’état.

But Mr. Cruz is merely facing facts. Mr. Maduro holds his power through the systematic violation of human rights and constitutional order, which has brought on an economic and social collapse and a refugee crisis that is affecting the whole continent. A regime steeped in corruption and narcotrafficking, whose violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014 and 2017 left 200 dead and thousands injured, will never cede power voluntarily.