Colombian president asks Biden to end sanctions on Venezuela if electoral progress is made

Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed on Thursday (20) to US President Joe Biden a strategy of progressively revoking sanctions against Venezuela as the country governed by Nicolás Maduro progresses on electoral issues.

“A strategy has been put on the table: first to hold elections and then to repeal the sanctions.”

“Or gradually, to the extent that an electoral agenda is met, those sanctions will also be revoked,” Petro told reporters at the White House in Washington, where he met with Biden.

The Colombian president revealed that he had proposed a “two-track” process in parallel.

One would be lifting US sanctions against Venezuela, and the other a timetable for elections with guarantees in the South American country and its return to the Inter-American Human Rights System.

Petro’s idea is that these two aspects are linked and move forward in parallel until they reach a point where the Venezuelan people can “decide, freely, without pressure and sanctions, their destiny.”

The Biden administration has been open to lifting sanctions against Venezuela, but only if concrete steps are taken toward free and fair elections, human rights are strengthened, and corruption is fought.

Sanctions on Venezuela have been strengthened under Donald Trump (2017-2021) with economic restrictions against several Venezuelan officials, including the son of the country’s dictator, Nicolás “Nicolasito” Ernesto Maduro Guerra, and limits on US operations of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Caracas’ main source of foreign currency.

Biden has maintained many of these sanctions. However, in November last year, he authorized the oil company Chevron to resume extraction operations in Venezuela on a limited basis.

Colombia will host an international conference on Venezuela next Tuesday, at which sanctions will be on the agenda, and attempts will be made to revive dialogue between chavismo and the opposition, which has been stalled since November 2022.

Neither the opposition nor the government of Nicolás Maduro will attend the conference, which will be attended by foreign ministers from some 20 countries, Petro said Thursday.

With information from EFE