The United States breaks ties with Venezuela and announces the return of oil embargoes

The United States has announced that it will not renew the oil and gas licenses it granted to Venezuela in exchange for the country’s democratic opening. Washington gave Chavismo until April to run for president against main opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, but President Nicolás Maduro and his allies have pushed the State Department to the impeachment. Announce this Tuesday that the ceasefire the two countries agreed to has been buried. The door that White House spokesman John Kirby had opened to continue negotiations by delaying a final decision until April has been closed. The game has crashed again.

On April 18, authorizations given to oil companies to negotiate with Venezuela will expire and this has raised expectations in the sector that they could be extended – given the contraction that the world energy market is experiencing with two wars in progress – given by Washington. After feedback they have reached their ceiling. Venezuela has responded immediately to condemn it as blackmail. It responds in similar terms to a deal that has proposed a negotiated electoral solution to the long political crisis in the South American country.

Vice President Delsey Rodriguez warned that migrant deportation flights implemented from the United States to Caracas would be suspended, to relieve internal pressure on the Joe Biden administration due to the massive arrival of Venezuelan citizens and other nationalities at its borders. opportunities. “If they take the wrong step of intensifying the economic offensive against Venezuela, at the request of extremists in the country, by February 13, repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants will be canceled immediately, and any existing cooperation mechanisms will be reviewed. Venezuela’s oil and As a countermeasure against a deliberate attempt to hit the gas industry,” the official responded in a reply message to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The February 13 date is because that’s the day the first licenses related to Venezuelan gold transactions will be revoked, according to an update from the US Treasury.

For the United States, “the actions of Nicolás Maduro and his representatives, including the arrest of members of the opposition” and the “banning of candidates from competing in this year’s presidential election,” are inconsistent with the agreements reached in October in Barbados. . In the document they clarify that General License 44, which has granted relief to Venezuela’s oil and gas sector since last November, will not be renewed when it expires “in the absence of progress between Maduro and his representatives and the opposition’s unified platform”. Two months and a half.

Washington urges Barbados to return to accords that Chavismo claims to be abiding by and the opposition denounces as being grossly violated. “We will continue to work with the international community and all peaceful democratic actors across the political spectrum in Venezuela and will take advantage of the mechanisms at our disposal to encourage a return to the principles of the Barbados Agreement,” Washington reiterated.

Venezuela has decided to go ahead with the elections it needs, in which it has left behind the main candidate chosen in the primaries, who leads the polls so far. Now she is encouraging petitions from other minority sectors—sometimes linked to Chavismo—whom, with the precarious support they retain, she can defeat. The head of parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, has said that an election date will be set and a timetable set next week. Chavismo will not be able to reverse Machado’s disqualification, which has been denounced by experts and from which he has not even been able to defend himself at trial.

Venezuela’s conflict is a dog chasing its tail. Once again, after a process that has seen some movement across the board, the situation is once again close to the stalemate it was before, with the risk that the direct dialogue that was achieved between Washington and Caracas, then the secretive Doha talks, is off again. . “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects the most recent attempts of blackmail and interference in its internal affairs by the government of the United States of America, which makes an ultimatum against the entire Venezuelan society and tries to impose a rebellion, through coercion and threats. , ignoring the institutions of the Republic, the new By applying coercive measures, and destabilizing the Venezuelan economy and the well-being of its people,” said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil.

Once partial objectives, such as the extradition of Alex Saab and the temporary easing of sanctions, have been achieved, Chavismo has made some sporadic concessions to the opposition and once again entrenched itself. Since regional sanctions were imposed in 2019, the Venezuelan government has learned to navigate amid the blockade imposed by the United States. It was Saab who became the government’s financial manager in that context until he was arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 and then extradited to the United States.

The president of PDVSA, Pedro Telechea, has called a press conference this Tuesday and said the oil industry is ready for any eventuality, given the limitations that reimposing sanctions would imply. Telechea said the measures taken by the United States will also have consequences in the North American country, as he assured that its crude oil inventory is low. The oil industry has struggled to recover production that had plummeted to record levels due to years of underinvestment, mismanagement and rampant corruption, which worsened after sanctions were imposed. From producing 3.2 million barrels per day, Venezuela reached close to 400,000 in 2020, its worst year. Thanks to the flexibility of the state’s joint ventures with Chevron, Eni and Repsol, this volume is increasing until it reaches about 800 thousand barrels per day, without significantly affecting the country’s economic situation. achieved. Control inflation with very high spending in consumption contraction.

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