The US continues to consider Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela to be illegitimate, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday (3), days after the Latin American country’s opposition failed to recognize Juan Guaidó as interim president.
Price spoke to reporters after releasing a statement saying Washington continues to recognize the 2015 National Assembly as the only remaining democratic institution in Venezuela.
The set of deputies elected that year, in practice, had their mandate ended in 2020, when the Maduro regime held a election boycotted by critics and considered fraudulent by a large part of the international community, which does not recognize its legitimacy.
“The pattern of political repression and human rights abuses committed by the Maduro regime, as well as severe political restrictions on civil society actors and freedom of expression, have robbed the Venezuelan people of their democratic right to self-determination,” the statement said.
The text also insists on the importance of holding free elections in 2024 in the country and that an agenda for the election be announced as soon as possible by Caracas. The subject is one of the main ones in the dialogue table resumed in November, in Mexico City, between the Venezuelan regime and opposition.
Over the past year, Washington has eased sanctions against Caracas — partly to promote diplomatic rapprochement, partly because it has domestic concerns over the Ukraine war. In November, for example, sanctions were eased in the oil sector, protagonist of the Venezuelan economy.
That month, the US announced that it would again allow the oil company Chevron to import oil and derivatives produced in Venezuelan territory, as long as the state-owned giant in Maduro’s country, PDVSA, does not benefit from it. The first export along these lines, reported the Reuters agency, would take place this month.
Nods have been given by Caracas as well. Maduro said, on Monday (2), that his country is “fully prepared” for a “process of normalization of diplomatic, consular and political relations with this US government [de Joe Biden] and with those who come”.
With the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to the Presidency of Brazil, Washginton has also expressed interest in using the PT’s connections with leaders of the Venezuelan regime to facilitate negotiations.
This Wednesday (4), according to US government sources heard by Reuters, the subject was one of those present in the 40-minute conversation between the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
Even before taking office, still during the transition of governments, Vieira informed that relations between Brasilia and Caracas would be promptly resumed. Dialogue with the neighboring country, source of the largest flow of migrants and refugees to Brazil today, had been interrupted by the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
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