White House denies Venezuela deal as critics warn any Maduro regime deal is a mistake
foxnews.comvene The Biden administration denied plans to relax sanctions on Venezuela to allow American businesses to operate in the country and unfreeze vital financial assets. "Our sanctions policy on Venezuela remains unchanged," National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. "We will continue to implement and enforce our Venezuela sanctions.
As we have previously made clear, we will review our sanctions policies in response to constructive steps by the Maduro regime to restore democracy in Venezuela and alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people." A report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that the administration had started to hash out a deal with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to open talks with the country’s opposition to outline how they might hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024, with the U.S.
in return freeing up hundreds of millions in frozen state funds, according to people familiar with the proposal. Yet, critics warn that for an administration that gives a high priority to human rights any deal with Venezuela is a mistake.
Reportedly, the deal would also allow Chevron Corp. to resume pumping oil at a time when the U.S. still needs oil supplies to maintain pressure on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.The WSJ noted that the amount of oil would remain "limited" and would only help "in the short term." President Biden on Thursday admitted the U.S.
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