After the agreement, in the reactivation of negotiations after 15 months of suspensionthe Joe Biden administration authorized the energy giant Chevron to partially resume its activities oil extraction in Venezuela.
Delegates of President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition they agreed “make all arrangements with the authorities and institutionsnational and foreign” for “obtain the legitimate funds of the Republic that are frozen in the international financial system” and use them in social projects.
They request the UN “the design, establishment and implementation of a single trust fund“to which this money will go, according to the document, read by Dag Nylander, representative of Norwaya country that facilitates the dialogues.
The unlocked resources “will be progressively incorporated as contributions to the fund“, destinated to health and educationrecover the deficient electrical network and attend to the emergency generated by rains that caused floods, the text explains.
The document does not specify the amount of funds to unlockbut Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro delegation, says that amounts to 3 billion dollars.
“There are more than 20,000 million dollars dammed (…). Through this agreement we are rescuing more than 3,000“said Rodríguez, president of Parliament.
The fund, said opposition negotiating leader Gerardo Blyde, “It will be administered by the UN.”
In a communication, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that Secretary General Antonio Guterresexpressed “the commitment” of the organization to support the parties to implement the agreement.
The “partial agreement (…) opens the way to a new chapter” to move “towards peace and well-being” of all Venezuelans, Maduro said while.
“GOODWILL”
Are pending on the table core issues such as next presidential elections, scheduled for 2024. The opposition demands set conditions for those electionsafter accuse Maduro of fraudulently re-election in 2018.
“Our mission” is “achieve the democratic conditions for alternability to take place“Blyde insisted this Saturday.
In a joint statement, United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada received with “welcome” the resumption of dialogue and they asked “good will to reach a global agreement leading to free and fair elections in 2024.”
They also ensured its “willingness to review the sanctions package in the event of substantial progress on behalf of the regime” of Caracas.
The sanctions sought, without success, the departure of Maduro from power in a country that has seen some seven million people emigrate due to its political and economic crisis, according to the United Nations.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenposted on Twitter that the agreement is “an important step towards the restoration of democracy.”
In that framework, the Treasury Department authorized Chevron to partially resume activities of the company of which it is co-owner in Venezuela with the state oil company PDVSA, provided that it ensures that this “does not receive any income from oil sales made by Chevron“.
The company celebrated the decision it’s a statement: “We are determined to remain a constructive presence in the country”.
The Department of State stressed that the other sanctions will continue to be applied “vigorously”.
Washington has had direct contacts with Maduro after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has admitted that Venezuelan oil could be useful in a high-priced international market and a context of strong internal inflation due, to a large extent, to the rise in gasoline prices.
There is, however, opposition to the easing of sanctions.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez considers that if Maduro seeks to use the negotiations “to gain time”United States and allies “they must return with full force to the sanctions“; and Republican Senator Rick Scott thinks that “there is no a scenario” in which to negotiate “with thugs like Maduro.”
“TRIUMPH OF POLITICS”
The Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrad, celebrated the agreement What “the triumph of politics” and “a hope” for Latin America.
The Venezuelan government and opposition held talks in Mexico in August 2021 after failed initiatives in 2018 in the Dominican Republic and 2019 in Barbados, but Maduro froze them two months later for the extradition to the United States of businessman Alex Saabclose to the government, prosecuted for money laundering.
Negotiations will continue in Decemberaccording to a joint statement.
Time oxygenated Maduro. The opposition leader Juan Guaidó, by contrast, has eroded since he declared himself Venezuela’s “interim president” in 2019. with the support of fifty countries, including the United States, ignoring the re-election of the socialist leader.
