Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says the US is preparing to ease sanctions on Venezuela to increase the global supply of oil. The State Department denies this, according to the Wall Street Journal.
President López Obrador, on his return from a visit to Havana this month, announced that the US had agreed to buy one million barrels of Venezuelan crude daily.
This would require lifting US sanctions that are designed to squeeze the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and help return the country to democracy.
A State Department said that the ‘current Venezuela-related sanctions remain in effect’ and that ‘there are no changes or new agreements.’ US engagement with Venezuela (and Cuba) is a goal of many Democrats in Washington. Companies like Chevron are lobbying to ease sanctions so they can resume operating in Venezuela.
In March Biden sent representatives to talk to Maduro. Venezuela later released two of more than a half-dozen American hostages it has been holding. The regime used the meeting to spread a propaganda message that Washington now recognises its legitimacy.
Last week 18 Democrats wrote to President Biden asking him to do away with sanctions as ‘one of the leading causes’ of Venezuelan suffering. The WSJ argues that the real leading cause is Maduro’s socialist policies that have generated hyperinflation, poverty, corruption, widespread malnutrition and produced millions of Venezuelan refugees.
The letter also notes that providing sanctions relief to Venezuela should be done ‘without hindering or delaying the urgent action needed to transition the US economy off of fossil fuels.’ Venezuela’s oil industry is a notorious polluter.
Venezuela is an ally of Russia.
The Biden Administration’s alleged overtures to Venezuela are taking place as it to restrict US oil and production.
[Image: Beatrice Murch, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9422711]