The Biden Administration maintains, despite criticism, that they will only review the sanctions against Venezuela “if there is significant progress in the negotiations in Mexico”
The movements in the new geostrategic board of America caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including American castlings. “We will review the sanctions only if there is significant progress in the negotiations in Mexico. We continue to support the people of Venezuela,” he added this Saturday. ned priceState Department spokesman.
The government statements capped a week of internal criticism after the surprising mini-summit in Caracas between Nicolás Maduro and Juan GonzálezBiden’s main adviser for the continent and the highest-ranking official who has traveled to Venezuela in 23 years of the Bolivarian revolution.
For some it is a slowdown before the first shock caused by the trip, others interpret it as a retreat from Washington after the expectations raised and when Chavismo has once again made it very clear, after the meeting in Turkey between the vice president Delcy Rodriguez and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, which maintains its alliance with Moscow at all costs. yes, for now Maduro rules out the installation of Russian bases in his territory.
“They are doing damage control, especially internally, due to criticism from congressmen. I think it is still too early to conclude that there is a going back, we will see if Washington makes a move next week. The oil thing (replacement of Russian by Venezuelan , now sanctioned) was the push, which makes Maduro believe that now it is possible for the US to relax the sanctions, but they still have to tie it with concrete advances or concessions made by Maduro due to the political cost within the US,” the internationalist explains to EL MUNDO Marian of Alba, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group.
“Biden seeks to weaken Russia’s influence in Latin America. The oil thing does not seem to be the most serious reason, not because they don’t need it, but because the Venezuelan oil industry is destroyed. It would take them a long time to recover it, and even with that supply, that is not going to stop the rise in gasoline prices, which is the problem in the US”, he weighs for this newspaper Mara Puerta Riera, professor of American government in Florida.
“Damage control,” insists the political scientist Walter Molina Galdi. “Perhaps they have underestimated the relevance that the world has once again given to democracy, and the need for it where there is none, after the last few weeks. Let’s see what comes next,” concludes Molina.
So, what is the balance of the Caracas mini-summit so far? The release of two of the 10 American prisoners in the dungeons of Mature, a certain strengthening of the Bolivarian government, the annoyance of Colombia and a new jolt for the democratic opposition, which seems to live in constant eruption.
“We are not going to ask other countries for permission to reunite Americans with their families,” confirmed a senior White House official after the return to their homes in the US of Gustavo Cárdenas, former manager of Citgo, a US subsidiary of Petrleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), sentenced to almost nine years in prison, and the Cuban-American tourist Jorge Alberto Fernández, one year in prison for carrying a toy drone. In Venezuela, five directors of Citgo and three former soldiers remain imprisoned.
“Much ado About Nothing. I don’t see the US gaining anything from this move, neither practically nor symbolically”, sums up the historian Arming Chaguaceda, one of the leading experts on revolutions.
While the US comes and goes on the board, Chavismo does not stop moving its pieces either. “There will be no way to deviate from this worthy path,” Nicolasito Maduro Jr. stressed on his social networks to the delight of his father and to reassure his followers. The same ones who verified how Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was photographed this Friday with the former president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero andn Turkey while drawing with his fingers the v of victory.
“Maduro’s authoritarian claims are the same as Putin’s. It is the same fight of democracy against authoritarianism. In this global conflict, we Venezuelans have to fight for a free and democratic country to stop these claims,” stressed the president in charge John Guaid, that received like a jug of cold water that kind of thaw initiated by Washington and from which Maduro appears today as a great beneficiary.
“The opposition fragmentation has deepened,” Puerta reasons, while De Alba believes “the interim government is weakened, especially in its effort to insist that they are the interlocutors that the international community and especially the US government have over Venezuela. But it is also true that this could serve as an impetus for the opposition in general to be motivated to come out of their lethargy, because now they could have a lot of work to do to prepare to return to Mexico and all that that implies. and resolve its internal situation, it is very unlikely that the negotiations in Mexico will advance”.
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