:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/C4VD6CFDQBZ7RTCZM5O6MA4MFI.jpg "The United States will reactivate sanctions on Venezuelan oil and gas due to the electoral disqualification of María Corina Machado")
The president of the United States, Joe Biden (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
The United States announced this Tuesday that it will reactivate sanctions on the Venezuelan oil and gas sector, after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) maintained the political disqualification of opposition member María Corina Machado.
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Washington “will not renew” a license granted in support of the Barbados agreement agreed in October between the opposition and the Nicolás Maduro regime starting in April, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“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,” indicated the official.
Nicolas Maduro
And he recalled: “In support of the Barbados Agreement, the United States issued General License 44, which provides relief to Venezuela’s oil and gas sector. In the absence of progress between Maduro and his representatives and the opposition Unitary Platform, particularly regarding allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s elections, the United States will not renew the license when it expires on April 18, 2024. Furthermore, The United States is revoking General License 43, which authorized transactions related to Minerven, the Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company. “U.S. persons will have 14 days to cancel any transaction that was previously authorized by that license.”
He then maintained that the US “remains firmly committed to supporting dialogue between the parties and the aspirations of the Venezuelan people for a democratic future”; while noting: “We will continue to work with the international community and all peaceful democratic actors from 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.”
Finally, he emphasized that “the Barbados electoral roadmap agreement remains the most viable mechanism to resolve Venezuela’s long-standing political, economic and humanitarian crisis and achieve competitive and inclusive elections in Venezuela, but that will require that Maduro and his representatives respect the principles of the roadmap and guarantee that opposition political actors have the right to freely choose their candidates for the 2024 presidential elections.
María Corina Machado (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernández Viloria)
Voices inside and outside the country spoke out against the disqualification of Machado, who in October of last year won the opposition primaries with 92.35% of the votes.
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The opposition grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) requested that the sentence that prevents Machado from participating in the presidential elections, scheduled for the second half of this year, be reversed, considering that it constitutes a “violation of due process and the right to defending”.
Furthermore, the Governments of Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union (EU) and the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), have rejected the measure and advocated for “transparent” elections.
The TSJ clarified that the measure against Machado, which was known in June 2023, began to count in September 2021, after an investigation that began in 2014 and whose opinion was made public this Friday.
The former deputy had already been sanctioned in 2015 for a period of one year, which expired in 2016, so, according to official information, she was authorized for five years, until, in 2021, she received a new sanction.
For her part, Machado denies having been notified of this decision, issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR).
The opposition stressed that, despite the disqualification, Machado will be the candidate who will face the Chavista regime in this year’s elections, as was arranged when she was elected in the primaries.