The United States began to reverse the relief of economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela due to what they consider to be the failure to comply with what was agreed with the opposition in the Barbados agreement signed in October on that island and which was to lead to the political empowerment of several actors. among them María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who, if she ran for president, would beat Nicolás Maduro by more than 50 percent of the votes, according to polls.
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Added to this action by Joe Biden’s administration is the rejection by several countries of the measure taken by the Venezuelan justice system against Machado.
Costa Rica, Chile, the Dominican Republic, France, Panama, Canada and Ecuador have questioned the actions of the Maduro administration. In fact, the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, said this Tuesday that he will not recognize the result of the next elections in Venezuela, which do not yet have a defined date, “since they have not been free elections,” and added: “We do not agree “Not at all (…), that there are no free elections in Venezuela, but at this moment it is not that we do not recognize Maduro’s government,” he said in an interview with Ecuavisa television.
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Machado thanked the “overwhelming” international response in rejection of the ratification of his political disqualification.
Quito had already questioned the ratification of Machado’s disqualification, saying that this “decision is contrary to the spirit of the Barbados agreements, aimed at facilitating the holding of democratic and transparent elections in Venezuela.”
For its part, the government of Gabriel Boric in Chile has also shown itself on the side of Machado, who this Tuesday participated as a special guest in a session of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Chilean Senate, where she thanked the position that the Government has taken. .
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“I must say that I greatly appreciate the responses of the Government of Chile. “It was a timely, necessary and very significant declaration due to some ideological affinities,” said the opposition leader, who assured on Monday that without it there will be no elections, since she received a popular mandate on October 22, when she obtained 2.2 million votes. votes in the opposition primaries.
Unlike these governments, the great regional absentee has been Colombia.
“The complicit silence of President Gustavo Petro in the face of the attacks on democracy that are being committed in Venezuela is inadmissible,” said Colombian opposition senator David Luna.
Milei’s statements against Petro are just as reprehensible as Petro’s silence in favor of Maduro.
“He likes to pose as an international leader, but remains silent about the injustices committed by his friends. Milei’s statements against Petro are just as reprehensible as Petro’s silence in favor of Maduro,” Luna insisted.
Despite the pressure, which could lead to a pressure similar to that of 2019, when more than 60 countries ignored Maduro, the regime’s spokespersons insist that María Corina Machado will not participate in the elections and that before April 18 there will already be election date.
(You can read: US responds to Machado’s disqualification and reverses sanctions relief for Minerven)
This was estimated this Tuesday by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, who summoned “all the presidential candidates” to draw up the calendar for the presidential elections on February 5, of course, without Machado.
Venezuelan opposition activist María Corina Machado participates in a demonstration on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the overthrow of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Sanctions and isolation
The licenses granted by the US to the oil industry will expire on April 18, which, if prolonged, would allow economic growth of at least 8 percent for Venezuela in 2024, otherwise a deepening of the crisis would return. economic crisis.
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The United States is relying on the Barbados agreement to exert pressure on the Maduro government, which is why on Monday it revoked a recent license granted to Minerven – the South American country’s gold company – that had been granted in October. This is general license 43, which authorized transactions related to Minerven.
Nicolás Maduro and Joe Biden.
The Biden administration emphasized that “the actions of Nicolás Maduro and his representatives in Venezuela, including the arrest of members of the democratic opposition and the banning of candidates from competing in this year’s presidential elections, are inconsistent with the agreements signed in Barbados. last October by representatives of Nicolás Maduro and the Unitary Platform.”
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Consequently, according to the words of Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the State Department, the United States will not renew general license 44, which provides relief to the Venezuelan oil and gas sector when it expires on April 18, 2024.
For Daniel Arias, a Venezuelan political scientist, “these decisions by Washington are also due to the political cost that Joe Biden’s government has suffered from being ridiculed by its political adversaries regarding its political and diplomatic relations with the government of Nicolás Maduro.”
ANA MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ BRAZÓN
TIME CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS