After Nicolás Maduro's regime violated the Barbados Agreement after disqualifying María Corina Machado, Venezuela's prominent opposition leader, Joe Biden's Government, reported that it is "reviewing" its sanctions policy against the South American country.
This Saturday, January 27, the State Department issued a statement describing the Venezuelan tyranny as "deeply concerning" since it goes against the agreement established in Barbados in which an electoral route was established to hold free elections.
Part of the agreement established that the Maduro regime would allow the main opposition leaders to participate in the presidential elections. However, this Friday, January 26, the illegitimate Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) confirmed the political disqualification, and without reason, of Machado, who will not be able to hold public office for 15 years. In October 2023, Machado became the main opposition leader when she won 92.5% of the votes in the primaries.
"The United States is currently reviewing our Venezuela sanctions policy, based on this development and the recent political targeting of democratic opposition candidates and civil society," Spokesman Matthew Miller stated. Miller added that the tyranny's decision lacked basic elements because "Machado neither received a copy of the allegations against her nor was afforded the opportunity to respond to those allegations."
The decision by Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice to uphold disqualifications of @MariaCorinaYA and @hcapriles undermines a competitive presidential election. Based on this action and targeting of opposition and civil society, the U.S. is reviewing our sanctions policy.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) January 27, 2024
The statement also noted that Machado's disqualification "is inconsistent" with the Maduro government's commitment to holding competitive presidential elections.
It must be noted that thanks to the Barbados agreements, the United States lifted energy sanctions against Venezuela that governed Venezuela's gas, oil and mines. The agreement also freed Maduro's frontman, Alex Saab, in exchange for the regime releasing 10 American hostages and 16 political prisoners.
After the disqualification, several former presidents of the region condemned the measure against Machado in a joint statement. They called on the guarantor countries of the Barbados Agreement to activate internal mechanisms to enforce the commitments.
Likewise, Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott reacted on X (Twitter) about the disqualification and called for the United States to reimpose sanctions "on Maduro's narco regime."
"When will the caretakers of America's decline in the Biden Administration realize Maduro had ZERO intention to abide by the Barbados agreement and finally decide to reimpose targeted sanctions against this narco-regime?" Rubio wrote in his on X (Twitter) account.
"Joe Biden must immediately reimpose sanctions- and I mean tonight. Anything short of that will be unacceptable appeasement and weakness. He never should have trusted Maduro, and now that he's been played by that thug, he needs to show that America will punch back," Scott wrote.
It remains to be seen whether the Biden Administration will finally reimpose sanctions on Nicolás Maduro after verifying that the tyrant had no intention of allowing free elections in Venezuela.
