Venezuela calls for full lifting of sanctions
President Nicolás Maduro said on Wednesday he was satisfied with recent decisions taken by Washington, but hoped for the complete lifting of sanctions.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during his speech in Caracas, November 30, 2022.
AFP
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday hailed as a step in the “right direction” the United States’ authorization of energy giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela, but pleaded for the complete lifting of sanctions imposed on the country. his country.
The licenses that Washington granted to Chevron and other companies “are undoubtedly going in the right direction, although they are not sufficient for what Venezuela demands, namely the complete lifting of all unilateral coercive measures. on the oil industry,” Nicolás Maduro told a press conference.
The US government on Saturday authorized Chevron to partially resume its hydrocarbon extraction in Venezuela, allowing it to restart its activities in the four companies it owns with the Venezuelan public giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA). However, Chevron must ensure that the public company does not receive any revenue from its oil sales.
This authorization came immediately after the signing of an agreement in Mexico between the Venezuelan government and the opposition for the release of three billion Venezuelan dollars frozen abroad following the sanctions, in order to allocate them to social projects (electricity , water and aid to regions affected by floods).
«Elections sans sanctions»
The United States and the international community, which did not recognize the re-election of Nicolás Maduro in 2018, boycotted by the opposition, imposed significant sanctions on the country, hoping to oust him from power. “The idea of taking Venezuela out of the global economic circuit was a bad idea, an extremist idea by Donald Trump, and they are paying the price because Venezuela is part of the global energy equation,” President Maduro said on Wednesday. .
“No matter who it hurts, we have to be there, we are a major oil power and we are going to be a gas power,” he added, recalling that just days after the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, Washington, worried about rising oil prices, had sent a negotiating mission to Caracas.
In May, Washington had already allowed Chevron to “negotiate” its possible resumption of operations in Venezuela, which represented a first breach of the Venezuelan oil embargo of 2019. Nicolás Maduro, who regularly calls for the lifting of the “763 criminal sanctions” against his country, hopes that the three billion dollars freed will arrive in December. He maintains that 24 billion Venezuelan assets are “sequestered” abroad.
“Show goodwill”
These three billion are part of an agreement between power and opposition, which resumed in November negotiations interrupted for more than a year aimed at getting the country out of the economic but above all political crisis. The opposition calls in particular for a “free, fair, democratic and observable” ballot for the presidential election of 2024.
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada on Saturday welcomed in a joint statement the official resumption of dialogue and called for “showing good will to reach a comprehensive agreement leading to free and fair in 2024”. They also declared themselves “ready” to review the sanctions “in the event of substantial progress”.
“We want elections free of sanctions, free of unilateral coercive measures, that they are all lifted so that we can have new and beautiful elections,” President Maduro retorted on Wednesday.
AFP
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