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Members of the Venezuelan opposition have addressed President Joe Biden, asking him not to become “an accomplice of the crimes” of the “Venezuelan tyranny.” Instead, the group is calling for the tightening of international sanctions against those in power in Venezuela.
In a public letter released this past Monday, headed by the former mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, who is in exile in Spain, they allude to an eventual resumption of oil trade between Venezuela and the United States.
The 68 signatories are concerned about the risks of U.S. institutions “supporting one of the most criminal regimes ever known in the history of mankind” in reference to the Venezuelan “tyrants” Hugo Chávez (now deceased), who governed between 1999 and 2013, and Nicolás Maduro.
They warn that the Venezuelan regime is “in connivance with the Russian, Cuban, Iranian axis and in collusion with drug cartels and narco-guerrilla groups.” Venezuela is no longer a state governed by the rule of law, they claim, “but a narco-state, therefore failed and outlawed at the same time.”
In these conditions, they explain, “the circumstantial needs of certain factors seek to turn the institutions of the United States into accessories for the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of citizens”, so they urge Biden not to allow his country to become “an accomplice to these crimes.”
They reject the relaxation of the international sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan regime and hierarchs, since they are a “pertinent” mechanism and, thanks to them, “the financing capacity” of the “Madurist regime” has been “limited”.
They consider that the poverty and massive emigration of Venezuelans are not due to these sanctions, but to the “theft” of the money destined to improve the electric system, hospitals, aqueducts, roads, schools and universities. “The theft has been colossal, it is assured that it exceeds 600,000 million dollars”, according to the letter.
For all these reasons, the signatories request that “the personalized sanctions against the predators of public goods and against those responsible for crimes against humanity in Venezuela be maintained and deepened, especially now when the European Union and the United States are promoting them against the massacre that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin is executing against the Ukrainian people.”
Among the signatories are former congresswoman and leader of Vente Venezuela María Corina Machado, editor Miguel Otero, former Foreign Minister Humberto Calderón, several former ministers, such as Carlos Blanco and Virginia Olivo, among others.
