Biden continues to consider Venezuela a threat to national security

President Joe Biden sent a letter to Congress asking that the declaration of national emergency on Venezuela be extended for another year due to the threat it represents to the security and foreign policy of the United States. Biden's request comes days before the one-year anniversary of last year's extension of the measure that first came into effect in 2015.

"The situation in Venezuela continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 with respect to the situation in Venezuela," Biden wrote in the document.

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 USC 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to Congress a notice indicating that the emergency will continue in effect beyond the anniversary date.

The original decree in which the National Emergency with respect to Venezuela was considered dates back to March 8, 2015.

Venezuela is under US sanctions. The Biden Government partially lifted some measures at the end of the year in a dialogue with the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. However, the policy has not worked. Precisely, this Tuesday the regime announced presidential elections without democratic conditions for July 2024. The call came while María Corina Machado, the main leader of the Venezuelan opposition, remains disqualified from participating in an electoral contest.