Spanish.- While the Democratic administration of US President Joe Biden still hopes that Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship will allow free presidential elections, despite the failure of the Barbados Agreement and the new wave of persecution, repression, and electoral maneuvers, benefits continue to flow to Miraflores during the remaining time for the culmination of the six months for which General License 43 and General License 44 were granted to Venezuelan oil and gas, which, as announced at the end of January by the State Department, will not be renewed. However, Washington does not rule out reconsidering this decision.
“We will continue evaluating the date we have set,” said US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, in statements from Spain quoted by NTN24. Although he clarified that the stipulated date for the reimposition of sanctions on Maduro’s regime is April 18 and that no changes will be announced before that day, he expressed his government’s hopes that deviations from a free electoral process can be corrected.
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“I will not comment on the conditions of today, but I would say that the election does not give much hope at the moment. However, there is still time to change course, and we will not close the possibilities before seeing how the process in Venezuela proceeds.”
Between US’s Dim Hopes and Regime’s Maneuvers
Brian Nichols did not overlook the fact that Nicolás Maduro’s regime “has still not fulfilled commitments and has instead refused to restore the political rights of opposition candidates such as María Corina Machado and Corina Yoris, while intensifying the harassment and imprisonment of members of civil society.”
For this reason, he added that “these actions undermine the possibility of competitive elections that the Venezuelan people so desperately desire and deserve.” The US official took the opportunity to applaud the change in position shown by the Colombian government of Gustavo Petro, who described María Corina Machado’s disqualification as an “anti-democratic blow,” as Nichols believes that “the words of President Petro in the region carry a lot of weight, and it is important to listen to what he says.”
If Maduro’s regime manages to deceive the White House into granting an extension of sanctions relief without respecting the political rights of all candidates so that either María Corina Machado or her chosen representative, Corina Yoris, can enter the race through the substitution mechanism for Edmundo González’s nomination, which expires on April 20 with the respective changes in voting instruments, the Joe Biden administration will only further demonstrate its weakness in foreign policy. For now, the Chavista dictatorship continues to benefit from the relaxation with new business deals with PetroChina, agreements between Chevron and PDVSA to drill 30 new wells with the announcement this Tuesday of the activation of the first one, and the return of Venezuelan bonds to influential debt indices of JPMorgan.