2024-04-18 00:24:09
The United States has not renewed license 44 that eases sanctions on Venezuelan oil and gas to punish President Nicolás Maduro, as it noted, for preventing members of the opposition from running in the elections and for the “harassment campaign” against activists. .
“As of April 17, 2024, general license No. 44”, which authorizes the production and sale of oil and gas and expired on Thursday, is replaced by number 44A, reports the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) , dependent on the Treasury Department. 44A will allow “the settlement of” pending “transactions before May 31,” he adds.
Barbados Agreement
The government of President Joe Biden is dissatisfied with the evolution of the electoral process in Venezuela since the signing of the Barbados Agreement last October, because it believes that Maduro has fulfilled part of the deal but has ignored its essence.
Venezuelan authorities have set an electoral calendar and accepted international observation missions in the July 28 elections, in which Maduro is running for a third term.
But “they have fallen short in several areas,” such as “the disqualification of candidates and parties on technicalities,” a US official who requested anonymity said Wednesday morning in a telephone press conference embargoed until the afternoon.
“Harassment campaign”
Washington is especially concerned about the fact that Chavismo’s main rival, María Corina Machado, remains disqualified and that the participation of Corina Yoris, nominated by her to replace her in the elections, has not been confirmed.
Machado had been disqualified for a year in 2015 for attending as Panama’s “alternate ambassador” to a meeting of the Organization of American States, where she denounced human rights violations during the protests that year calling for Maduro’s departure and left 40 dead. The sanction was extended to 15 years last June for having “requested the application of sanctions and economic blockade that caused damage to Venezuelan health.” In January of this year, the Supreme Court of Venezuela ratified Machado’s political disqualification.
“Disturbing bell”
For the United States, this is a political ban. “We have witnessed a disturbing campaign of harassment and intimidation against opposition actors solely for exercising their political rights,” said a senior official who also requested anonymity, referring to the seven members of Machado’s campaign team detained and many others under arrest. arrest warrants.
However, Washington avoids slamming the door and breaking with Caracas. As part of its sanctions programs, OFAC can issue “specific licenses” at the request of companies, which it will evaluate “case by case” and which are not public, an official explained at the press conference.
The Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum, Pedro Tellechea, takes it for granted. “All the companies that contracted with me until the 18th (…) obtain a private license,” he declared to journalists in Caracas.
These licenses to multinationals such as the French Maurel & Prom, the Spanish Repsol or the Italian Eni “would keep Maduro interested” in a negotiation, Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at the Baker Institute at Rice University, recently told journalists. , Texas, at a time when the United States and Europe are looking for energy sources to alleviate the effects of the war in Ukraine.
The reactivation of sanctions on the energy sector “should not be seen as a final decision in which we no longer believe that Venezuela can hold competitive and inclusive elections,” added an official at the press conference, and specified that the United States will continue to “interact with all the parties”, including “the representatives of Maduro, the democratic opposition, civil society and the international community”.
“We are not going to stop”
But the Maduro government is defiant. “At no time did we stop producing, marketing, exploiting our reserves,” declared the Minister of Petroleum. “We are not going to stop, license or no license.”
Venezuela’s production is around 800,000 barrels per day, after hitting a floor in mid-2020, when it plummeted below 400,000, but it is far from the three million it reached 15 years ago.
All in all, the income of the state oil company PDVSA went from 3,000 million dollars in 2022 to 6,320 million in 2023, according to the Venezuelan government, because the partial and temporary lifting of the embargo allowed shipments to be reestablished to countries like India.
The embargo on Venezuelan oil and gas was imposed in 2019 as part of a battery of sanctions to try to bring about the fall of Maduro after the 2018 elections, considered fraudulent by Washington.
The Biden government, which has already reimposed sanctions on Venezuelan gold, acknowledges having weighed several aspects to decide whether to reverse the relaxation of the oil embargo less than seven months before the US presidential elections, but only one seems to have been decisive.
“We focus on the political circumstances of the situation in Venezuela,” said a senior official. Migration is one of the central issues of the US elections in November and Venezuela is a red point, with more than seven million people having left the country since 2014, according to the UN.
The reimposition of sanctions does not affect previous licenses, such as the one granted in 2022 to the American giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela and collect outstanding debts with crude oil.
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