Why Biden sniffs Maduro about oil. Financial Times Report
There is still no agreement between the US and Venezuela, but here's what the Financial Times writes about a possible rapprochement between the two countries. Will Biden turn a blind eye to Maduro for oil?
As the world seeks alternative suppliers to replace Russian oil, in the event of Western sanctions on Moscow tighten, a US delegation met with senior government officials in Venezuela.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Juan González, the top White House official in Latin America, was in Caracas on Saturday for meetings with President Nicolás Maduro's government. Two other sources confirmed that a senior US delegation was in Caracas for meetings.
This represents a major political shift as the US broke off diplomatic relations with Maduro in 2019 and closed their embassy, accusing him of stealing a presidential election the previous year.
There was no official confirmation from the United States of the visit, which the New York Times reported first, but data from the ADS-B Exchange flight tracking website showed a Gulfstream jet leaving an airport in Washington and flies to Caracas via Miami on Saturday. There are no commercial flights from the United States to Venezuela at the moment – writes the FT .
Maduro was a close ally of Russia and Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Borisov visited Caracas just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. But experts said U.S. officials see an opportunity to loosen long-standing sanctions on Venezuelan oil and remove Maduro from Moscow's embrace at a time when global oil supply concerns are reaching. peak.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the United States was in "very active discussions" with European partners to ban imports of Russian oil in a coordinated way.
"I think it is legitimate, even predictable, for the Biden administration to try to smooth things out with Venezuela and Iran, given the energy supply crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine," said Francisco Rodríguez, member of the Council for Foreign Relations and a longtime critic of US oil sanctions on Venezuela.
"There is, in principle, a possible deal that could significantly increase Venezuelan oil production in the medium term if the sanctions are lifted and Maduro allows Western oil companies to manage the oil fields."
Washington has imposed tough sanctions on Venezuelan oil since 2019 in an attempt to force Maduro to step down. In an unprecedented move, the United States recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate president in place of Maduro and convinced some 60 other nations to follow suit.
Sanctions crushed Venezuela's economy, but Maduro tightened his grip on power and survived with the support of Cuba, Russia and China. Guaidó meanwhile lost ground and reluctantly accepted political negotiations with the Maduro government in Mexico last year. Venezuela subsequently dropped out of the talks.
Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office for Latin America, said the US move wasn't purely on oil. "The most interesting recent development is that the opposition in Venezuela has urged the Biden administration to provide them with the cards to bring the regime back to the table to revive negotiations," he said.
Any move to shift US policy on Venezuela and relax oil sanctions is likely to face strong opposition from some Republican hawks, particularly those close to the Venezuelan exile community.
"Joe Biden using #Russia as an excuse to make the deal they always wanted to do with the #MaduroRegime anyway," said Florida Senator Marco Rubio. "Instead of producing more oil, America wants to replace the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with the oil of another murderous dictator."
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and has been a major exporter, but its production has plummeted in recent years from nearly 3 million barrels a day to less than 1 million amid mismanagement and sanctions.
(Extract from the foreign press review by eprcomunicazione )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/perche-biden-annusa-maduro-sul-petrolio-report-ft/ on Sat, 12 Mar 2022 07:02:30 +0000.