Biden lifts restrictions on the Chavista regime and allows Chevron to invest in Venezuela

The Democrats disrupted the policy of pressure and zero tolerance that former President Trump had promoted for the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Chevron will be authorized to carry out extractive operations with state oil company PDVSA.

The United States Department of the Treasury led by Janet Yellen confirmed that the Biden government has decided to authorize the partial lifting of economic sanctions against the Chavista regime, which began during the administration of former President Donald Trump.

In this way, the Democratic government betrays an important sector of the Latino vote that had placed its trust in Biden to defend democracy in Venezuela. This was evidenced in the legislative election on November 8, where Venezuelan immigrants in Florida voted en masse for the Republican Party.

This decision, moreover, is a change of course completely opposite to that promoted by former President Donald Trump, who devised a policy of economic pressure and severe sanctions for the systematic violation of human rights, with the aim of stopping Maduro’s expansion within and out of Venezuela

Officially, the objective of the new measures that relax the pressures on the Chavista regime will be to promote “relief to the suffering of the Venezuelan people” supposedly resulting from the sanctions, but the truth is that the relief will only expand the pockets of the government, which may take advantage of the best economic position to consolidate power and postpone any democratic solution.

“The United States welcomes and supports the reopening of negotiations between the Unitary Platform and the Maduro regime, as part of our longstanding policy of supporting the peaceful restoration of democracy, free and fair elections, and respect for the rights and liberties of Venezuelans,” said the Treasury Department in an official statement.

What the White House does not mention is that the true purpose of the lifting of restrictions is to favor the dynamism of the volume of oil imported to the United States, particularly from Venezuela, in order to achieve a reduction in domestic prices.

After the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Venezuelan oil emerged as a possible alternative to the shortage of Russian supply and the restrictions on supply imposed by OPEC.

Thus, as part of the lifting of sanctions, Biden granted a permit to the important company Chevron, which will now have a free hand to restart activities in conjunction with the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), although with certain limitations. quantitative.

This measure comes at a time of maximum tension in Venezuela, where the Chavista economy collapsed again starting in the third quarter of the year, after an apparent economic rebound in recent months.

Oil production has plummeted 9% since then, economic activity stopped growing around June, and retail prices had an average increase of 14.43% between August and October.

The export potential of the Venezuelan economy is strongly conditioned by the terrible internal organization. The lifting of restrictions does not really guarantee the provision of a relevant oil supply for the United States.

With information from La Derecha Diario