The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition on Saturday broke a political stalemate with a broad social accord, and the US government responded by allowing a major US oil company to resume operations in Venezuela.
The accord heralded a potential easing of a grinding economic and political crisis in Venezuela.
It paves the way for the US to oversee a trust fund of frozen assets of the Maduro government to be used for a variety of social projects in the South American country, including programs related to education, health, food security, flood response and electricity.
Photo: AP
“We have identified a set of resources belonging to the Venezuelan state, frozen in the global financial system, to which it is possible to access,” said Dag Nylander, a diplomat from Norway, which facilitated the negotiations.
The amount to be released was not specified.
The agreement, signed in Mexico, ended 15 months of stalemate between the two sides, potentially easing a massive flow of refugees from Venezuela throughout the region and even affecting world oil markets.
Maduro praised the deal on Twitter, saying that it “opens the way for a new chapter for Venezuela, to keep advancing toward the peace and well-being that all Venezuelans yearn for.”
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was committed to supporting the parties, calling the breakthrough “an important milestone that has the potential to deliver broader benefits for the people of Venezuela.”
The US Department of the Treasury said the accord marks “important steps in the right direction to restore democracy” in Venezuela, and responded by issuing a license to Chevron Corp to resume limited oil extraction operations in Venezuela.
The license would remain in effect for six months while US President Joe Biden’s administration assesses whether the Maduro government meets commitments made in the accord, the treasury department said.
Chevron said that it would “continue supporting social investment programs aimed at providing humanitarian relief” in the country, and that the “decision brings added transparency to the Venezuelan oil sector.”
The relaxation of curbs on Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, would allow the nation to move toward re-entering global oil markets. International efforts to resolve the Venezuelan crisis have gained strength since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the pressure it has placed on global energy supplies.
A joint statement by Canada, the EU, the UK and the US pledged “willingness to review sanctions” on Venezuela, but demanded that it release political prisoners, respect press freedom and guarantee independence of the judiciary and electoral bodies.
US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, a Democrat, said that the Biden administration should move slowly.
“If Maduro again tries to use these negotiations to buy time to further consolidate his criminal dictatorship, the United States ... must snap back the full force of our sanctions that brought his regime to the negotiating table in the first place,” Menendez said in a statement.
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