Florida proposal urges reinstating sanctions on Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro
MIAMI – Rep. Vicki Lopez, R-Miami, recently filed a house memorial requesting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken implement polices that reinstate economic sanctions against Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro.
Pertinent to HM 467, President Joe Biden, under his administration, has relaxed sanctions on companies trading or investing in oil produced in Venezuela. The cooperation also was based off the country holding free elections in 2024.
In October, the Maduro-backed Venezuelan Supreme Court suspended the electoral votes for opposition presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado. The accusations, affirmed by the court, decrees fraud within Machado’s 2.3 million voters.
Florida Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez recently sponsored a resolution declaring Machado the rightful winner. The resolution further accused Maduro of engaging in “threats and attacks” against the opposition party while calling his regime “illegitimate.”
The Maduro regime also has issued arrest warrants for former Juan Guaido. The National Assembly leader was once backed by the U.S. as Venezuela’s interim president.
Venezuela’s presidential election is scheduled for 2024.
Lopez’s memorial called Biden’s policy a “misguided change.” It also declared it “lessened the impact of longstanding sanctions aimed at promoting freedom and democracy in Venezuela.”
Furthermore, the proposal stated the change increased Venezuelan oil into the global crude market. The result, however, did not lower “stubbornly high” prices amid turmoil in Europe and the Middle East.
On Oct. 18, U.S.-Venezuelan sanctions on crude oil and refined petroleum were lifted for a period of six months. The country’s gold-owned company, Minerven, also was permitted to conduct transactions which provided revenue to the Maduro regime.
The theory, according to the proposal, allowed Maduro to stay in power while spreading terror and corruption.
U.S.-Venezuelan relations also have seesawed for decades.
In 2008, the United States issued sanctions on Venezuela and then President Hugo Chavez. The response occurred as Chavez deprived oil assets from oil companies such as Exxon Mobil.
Former President Donald Trump also placed sanctions on Venezuela and current President Maduro in 2017. The embargo specifically targeted the country’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, an oil and natural gas company.
Due to purported corruption and mismanagement, 3 million barrels of oil are currently being pumped by PDVSA. The company’s peak oil production also occurred in the early 2000’s, according to the memorial.
Two years later, in 2019, PDVSA was identified as operating in Venezuela’s oil sector by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Secretary Steven Mnuchin, at the time, authorized sanctions against the company resulting in $7 billion in frozen assets.
Under the sanctions, U.S. companies and individuals were prohibited from doing business with PDVSA. The ban included exporting Naptha, a highly flammable liquid hydocarbon mixture used primarily as a solvent or diluent for conversion to gasoline.
In 2019, PDVSA moved to Moscow, Russia by order of Maduro. The switch was designed to protect the companies assets from U.S. sanctions.
Similar to its sanctions against PDVSA, the United States sanctioned the Swiss-incorporated Rosneft Trading S.A. in 2020. The U.S. Treasury Department soon after sanctioned Venezuela’s Central Bank and National Development Bank.
Adherent to the changes, the memorial is to be dispatched to the president of the United States, the president of the United States Senate, the speaker of the House, the secretary of state, and each member of the Florida delegation.
