Leer en Español
The Associated Press news agency reported on Tuesday that Joe Biden’s administration is moving to ease sanctions on Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela. According to the media, it would be a policy to boost the regime’s negotiations with the Venezuelan opposition.
As AP explains, the changes will allow Chevron Corp. to negotiate its license with state oil company PDVSA. “But not to drill or export any petroleum of Venezuelan origin, two senior U.S. government officials told The Associated Press late Monday. The officials spoke under the condition of anonymity because the formal announcement had not been made,” the media outlet reported.
It was also learned that Carlos Erik Malpica-Flores, a former high-ranking PDVSA official and nephew of Venezuela’s first lady, will be removed from a list of sanctioned individuals. A source explained to AP that the measures would have been requested by members of the opposition.
Meetings on sanctions against the dictatorship
Several senators and congressmen had already warned about the Democratic Government’s rapprochement with the Venezuelan dictatorship. In March, it was reported that senior American officials held a secret meeting with Maduro at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, according to a Reuters report.
Biden’s White House asked him for some electoral guarantees, broad reforms in the Venezuelan oil sector and a public rebuke to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in exchange for the temporary lifting of some of the financial sanctions imposed on the Chavista regime.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Twitter, wrote on Sunday that “It is wrong for the Biden Administration to beg for oil from Venezuela & legitimize Maduro’s communist regime during an official visit.”
