The United States considers easing sanctions against Venezuela

The Treasury Department issued a license on Tuesday to Chevron, the only major US oil company that continues to operate in the South American country, to carry out a possible restart of production, which had ceased under US sanctions, according to The Washington Post newspaper.

This license could mark the beginning of a series of measures aimed at easing oil sanctions, depending on the cooperation of the Venezuelan government, according to senior US officials.

If the government of President Nicolás Maduro returns to negotiations with the opposition aimed at guaranteeing free and fair elections in 2024, the United States could allow Chevron to start sending equipment to Venezuela.

“The world knows that Venezuela has taken its first steps on the road to economic recovery with its own effort, denouncing and overcoming the illegitimate sanctions and the inhumane blockade. Our people are proud of the work and achievements of recent times,” he said. The Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, reacted on her official Twitter profile.

Given the possible decision by Washington, she has indicated that the Government of Venezuela has already “verified and confirmed” this step, so now Caracas hopes that the path “for the absolute lifting” of the sanctions will begin, which it has described of “illegal”.

“The Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, attached to its deep democratic values, will continue to tirelessly promote fruitful dialogue in a national and international format,” Rodríguez added on his social networks.

The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, has also celebrated this possible step, assuring that it is a “triumph of diplomatic pressure.” “It is up to him to recognize the outrages that were committed in the past against oil companies in that country,” he stressed, according to Caracol Radio.

These movements take place after the lifting of the sanctions on Cuba, imposed at the time of former US President Donald Trump, and in the framework of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has caused an unprecedented rapprochement in the last three years between the Biden Administration and the Venezuelan Government.

Oil industry in the spotlight

Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil in 2019, in retaliation for the 2018 presidential elections. Venezuela currently produces some 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day, far from the three million it maintained for years.

The blockade of the energy industry of the South American country has led to a greater dependence on Moscow, which is why Washington is now considering formulas to reverse some of the sanctions imposed against Venezuela.

The United States has been considering this option for several months. Last March, the US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, stressed in statements to the NBC network that “any relief” from the sanctions will go hand in hand with the “concrete steps” taken by both Maduro and “the people who surround him “.

Source: dpa