Spanish – Nicolás Maduro continues to get his way. Despite the fact that the United States announced on Tuesday through the State Department that it will reimpose sanctions on Venezuelan oil, gas, and gold starting April 18, when the temporary relief granted in October expires, the grace period that the regime still has, not only allows it to receive income for two and a half more months but also to maneuver through ideological pressure groups and American companies that are profiting from the reactivation of business with Caracas to convince the White House to reconsider the decision.
“Not only the ideological pressure groups of the left but now also the commercial groups, the American oil companies that are doing business with Maduro, are going to put pressure on the Biden government not to restore the sanctions. So it cannot be taken for granted that they will restore the sanctions in April,” warns the former assistant secretary of State of the USA for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, in an interview with PanAm Post.
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The former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela believes that Maduro not only mocked President Joe Biden but also humiliated the White House, with the aggravating factor that this happened because the Democratic Administration allowed it and continues to allow it. He recalls that he worked in high positions in the governments of Ronald Reagan and both George Bushes (father and son) and “if someone had done to any of these three presidents what the Maduro government just did, to violate an agreement that he signed, (…) any of these three presidents would have immediately restored the sanctions.”
From Failure to Humiliation
Otto Reich believes that Biden’s policy towards Venezuela has been a failure since the beginning of his administration. “Unfortunately for the people of Venezuela, for the region, for the democracy of the hemisphere, for U.S. policy and for the image and honor of the United States, the policy (of Biden) has been a failure. It doesn’t work. We are seeing it. But not just a failure but a humiliation. They are humiliating the White House (…) because (Maduro) tells them one thing and does another. And the White House does not respond or responds halfway.”
Regarding the response of the Chavista regime that points to the suspension of repatriation flights of Venezuelans deported for illegally entering the U.S., Otto Reich warns that migration is used as a political weapon against Washington not only by the dictatorship of Venezuela but also by Nicaragua and Cuba.
Will there be changes this year if Donald Trump returns to the White House? While he emphasizes that the former Republican president does not usually reveal his next actions, making it difficult to predict his steps, he asserts that without a doubt Trump “will not give Maduro the opportunity to humiliate the United States or deceive the United States, as Maduro has done with Biden.”