THE UNIVERSAL
A little over a week following a prominent Venezuelan civil society group sent a letter to the United States government, mainly aimed at requesting that it allow the return of foreign oil companies, among other measures to ease sanctions once morest this country, The debate continues between representatives of different sectors of national politics regarding the content of the letter that has not received a formal response from President Joe Biden.
Until the closing of this edition, the only known signal from the US on the matter may be related to the pronouncement of the Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the State Department, Brian Nichols, who asked the Government of Nicolás Maduro to resume the dialogue in Mexico with the opposition sector led by Juan Guaidó.
Origin of the controversy
As has been widely disclosed, last Thursday the 14th of this month, 25 opinion leaders who, although independent, are considered close to the Venezuelan opposition, asked President Biden to facilitate agreements for the return of foreign companies to exploitation activities. oil company in the country, as a measure that would contribute to alleviate the economic crisis that the nation is experiencing.
The letter, signed by prominent economists, analysts, oil experts and trade unionists, highlights that the sanctions that weigh on Venezuela “did not achieve their objective” of removing leftist President Nicolás Maduro from office and suggests that the production of Venezuelan crude oil might increase in a matter of months if licenses are granted to the oil companies, AFP reported at the time.
The center of the discussion
Criticism from some opposition political sectors focuses especially on the arguments offered by the letter.
The letter indicates that, “although the sanctions are not the root of the humanitarian emergency in Venezuela, they have seriously exacerbated conditions for the average Venezuelan,” and that “75% of Venezuelans strongly reject sectoral sanctions and hardly 10% want them to stay.”
On this point, characters linked to the radical opposition have expressed through different media, including the former deputy to the National Assembly Willian Dávila, the former mayor of the Libertador Municipality, Antonio Ledezma and the leader of Voluntad Popular, Freddy Guevara, their rejection to the statement regarding the aforementioned proportion between those who continue to support the sanctions and those who oppose them, and doubt “the interests” that may be behind the management of the 25.
Through his Twitter account, Dávila expressed: “Sanctions cannot be channeled as the worst evil of the complex humanitarian crisis that is plaguing Venezuela, exonerating (Nicolás) Maduro for being the direct cause of this tragedy.”
While, also in the aforementioned information network, the director of the Center for Political and Government Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, Benigno Alarcón, questioned the letter, pointing out in an interrogative manner: “What is the intention of such a questionable letter addressed to at such a high level? What are the political agendas and interests that move here? Difficult to understand the signatories without understanding the non-signatories who, however, are behind this initiative”.
The 25 defend themselves
For the group of the 25 authors of the letter, they have maintained an active task in defense of their document, among others, the president of Datanalisis, Luis Vicente León and the former president of Fedecamaras, Ricardo Cusanno.
In the program Vladimir a la 1, León pointed out in the first place that “when the issue of lifting sanctions is raised, it refers to those that directly affect the population, including economic ones, including those related to the oil industry. Secondly, he questioned whether the same political proposal that led to the failure of the efforts of those who led the opposition in recent years is maintained internally; and assured that the letter is in favor of re-establishing political negotiations between the opposition, the Government and the United States, because he considers that “negotiating is not giving up” when it comes to resolving the problems that affect the country.
For his part, Cusano has been maintaining in interviews for different media that the proposal made to President Biden, to resume negotiations and make licenses for oil companies more flexible, is something viable. He has also indicated that he would like to hear the proposals of those who criticize the letter, because he considers that they do not have “feasible proposals” either.