Pressure grows on Biden in the US after approaches to the Chavista regime in Venezuela

The US government was under mounting pressure to start lifting sanctions on Venezuela after illegitimate President Nicolás Maduro released two US prisoners and promised to resume talks with the opposition.

Maduro’s goodwill gesture followed a trip to Caracas by high-ranking members of the White House and State Department over the weekend, which caught Maduro’s friends and enemies by surprise.

Although the government of President Joe Biden did not say much about what had been discussed behind closed doors, Maduro – who had been seeking direct meetings with the United States for years – proudly boasted that careful protocol had been followed and praised the image of the flags of both countries together.

Over the past five years, and with little success, the United States has employed everything from harsh oil sanctions to criminal charges and support for coup attempts in its campaign to oust Maduro and restore what it sees as Venezuela’s stolen democracy.

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has upended the world order, forcing the United States to reconsider its national security priorities. Hostile oil states under US sanctions, such as Iran and Venezuela, are the most likely beneficiaries as Biden tries to ease the impact of the ban on Russian oil imports, which is driving up prices that had already pushed inflation to an all-time high. in four decades.

“Clearly at some level a decision was made to abandon some of the pillars of US policy toward Venezuela in recent years.”, said Brian Winter, vice president of the Council of the Americas. “But until we know exactly what the Biden administration is trying to accomplish, it will be difficult to assess how far this truce will go.”

The US authorities have not detailed other specific results of the talks led by Juan González, responsible for Latin America at the National Security Council. It was the first visit to Venezuela by a White House official since Hugo Chavez led the country in the late 1990s, and a rare opportunity to discuss policy issues with the Maduro government.

An official said it was “a constructive, diplomatic but very sincere dialogue” and that it did not involve any quid pro quo but allowed the US government to share with Maduro its “vision of the world”.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that it was an encouraging gesture that Maduro decided to return to negotiations in Mexico with his rivals. But neither she nor anyone else in the US government clarified how the United States would respond, if at all.

“There are a number of things going forward, but right now we’re just celebrating the return of the two Americans.Psaki said.

One of the two freed Americans, oil executive Gustavo Cardenas, had been imprisoned in Venezuela since 2017, when he and several colleagues from the Houston-based firm Citgo were lured to Caracas for what they believed to be a board meeting. its parent company, the state oil company PDVSA.

Instead, security officers with assault rifles and their faces covered burst into the conference room and detained the executives. They were later convicted of corruption offenses stemming from a never-executed plan to refinance some $4 billion of Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.

In a statement Wednesday, Cardenas noted that his more than four years in prison had “caused a lot of suffering and pain, much more than I can put into words.”

The eight Americans still detained in Venezuela, including five of Cardenas’ colleagues at Citgo, are a major obstacle to normalizing relations with Maduro.

But even if the release of the other prisoners seems unlikely, Winter said there was now a small window of opportunity to maintain rapprochement as the United States positions itself for a long geopolitical standoff with Russia.

Among the options the United States has at its disposal is allowing Chevron – the only US oil company still operating in Venezuela – to increase production and perhaps resume exports to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico coast, custom-built to process the oil from the country, according to a US official before the diplomatic mission last weekend.

US sanctions prevent Chevron from negotiating with Maduro or doing anything more than basic maintenance of the wells it operates with PDVSA.

There has been speculation that the United States could try to reopen its embassy in Caracas, closed since the government of former President Donald Trump and other governments recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela in 2019.

Now, much depends on whether Maduro puts aside his authoritarian bias.

Although he has received US officials, Maduro has given little indication that he wants to leave Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week he spoke by phone with the Russian leader in a gesture of support, and attended a march in Caracas in which Putin’s ambassador received a standing ovation from supporters of the socialist party, which rules Venezuela.

Winter said Maduro will also have to show a real willingness to negotiate with the opposition, instead of using the talks to buy time and relieve international pressure, as he has done in the past.

The most combative opposition and their allies in the United States have begun to criticize Biden for abandoning the multilateral policy of isolating Maduro.

Instead, some Venezuelans close to the government are already optimistic about the prospect of a better future, if not a return to the days when they could buy real estate in the United States and spend weekends in Miami.

A wealthy Venezuelan businessman who has been the target of US federal investigations for years, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, described him as “the beginning of the end of the conflict”, and pointed out that now the United States would go after the Russian oligarchs.