The United States announced on Tuesday that it will relax, albeit in a limited way, some sanctions against Venezuela with the aim of promoting dialogue between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition supported by Washington.
“The United States is taking a series of measures at the request of the interim government of Venezuela and the Unity platform of opposition parties negotiating with the Venezuelan regime, to support its decision to return to the negotiating table in Mexico City,” he told journalists a high-ranking American official.
Those limited changes will allow Chevron Corp. to negotiate its license with state oil company PDVSA, but not to drill or export oil of Venezuelan origin, two top US government officials said Monday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was also announced that Carlos Erik Malpica Flores — a former high-ranking PDVSA official and the nephew of Maduro’s wife — will be removed from a list of sanctioned people, the officials said.
The moves follow goodwill gestures from Maduro after meeting in March with representatives of the Biden administration and a recent meeting in Central America between US officials and the opposition Unity Platform coalition.
“These are things that the Unitarian Platform negotiated and came to ask us to do so in order to return to the negotiating table,” said one of the officials.
Dozens of Venezuelans, including the attorney general, the head of the prison system, and more than 140 entities, including the Central Bank of Venezuela, will continue to be sanctioned. The Treasury Department will continue to prohibit transactions with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA within the US financial markets.
The Venezuelan government suspended talks with the opposition in October after the extradition to the United States of a key Maduro ally on money laundering charges. Maduro at that time conditioned his return to the negotiating table to the release of businessman Alex Saab, extradited from Cape Verde.
The negotiations took place in Mexico City with the mediation of Norwegian diplomats.
Associated Press/OnCuba.
