By: Staff Writer
January 31, 2024
The United States reimposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector ealier this week after the South American country’s top court this past Friday upheld a 15-year ban on opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from holding public office. The arrests of several opposition members were confirmed the same day.
The US had considered dropping the sanctions altogether, however, this latest move by the court under the Nicolas Maduro regime has made this possibility as far away as it was in previous years.
On Friday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court, aligned with Maduro’s government, upheld a ban on opposition leader María Corina Machado, a longtime government foe and winner of the primary held by the opposition faction backed by the U.S.
Machado, a former lawmaker, won the opposition’s independently-run presidential primary with more than 90% of the votes. Her victory came despite the government announcing a 15-year ban on her running for office just days after she formally entered the race in June.
As a result of the reimposed sanctions, any US companies doing business with Venezuela’s state-owned mining concern Minerven have until February 13 to complete a “wind down of transactions” with the company, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said on Monday.
The US warned Venezuela at the weekend that it could end some sanctions relief granted last year when Caracas agreed to a deal for elections in 2024, including setting up a process for would-be candidates to challenge their disqualification.
“Absent progress between (President Nicolas) Maduro and his representatives and the opposition Unitary Platform, particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s election, the United States will not renew the license when it expires on April 18, 2024,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to the Treasury license, which allowed for the broad resumption of transactions with Venezuela’s oil industry a statement.
“Additionally, the United States is revoking General License 43, which authorized transactions involving Minerven – the Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company,” Miller said in a statement. “U.S. persons will have fourteen days to wind down any transactions that were previously authorized by that license.”
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said earlier on Monday that U.S. measures would depend on Maduro and his government.
“They’ve got till the spring to honor their commitments,” he told a daily briefing. “They’ve got decisions they have to make before we weigh what decisions we’ll take.”
Machado, a 56-year-old industrial engineer who overwhelmingly won an October opposition primary vote, said on Monday she would not move aside in favor of a substitute.
“There is no retreat. We have a mandate and we will complete it,” Machado told a press conference in Caracas.
The ruling was “judicial crime,” she said, adding there will be many obstacles still to overcome but there will be elections this year.
Jorge Rodriguez, a lawmaker who heads Maduro’s team in negotiations with the opposition, said prior to the Treasury decision that if Washington took “any aggressive action,” Venezuela’s response would be “serene, reciprocal and energetic.”
Maduro repeated the same rhetoric during his weekly television show on Monday evening, without commenting directly on the Minerven decision.