Secretary of State, Antony Blinken , announced this Tuesday that he could end the agreement to relieve Venezuela's oil sanctions that had been reached with Nicolás Maduro. This, after the dictatorial regime voided "all effects" of the opposition primaries, in which María Corina Machado won with more than 90% of the votes.
Recently, the Biden Administration reached an agreement with Maduro that included the temporary lifting of sanctions on Venezuela's oil, gas and gold industries, in exchange for the Venezuelan regime guaranteeing free and fair presidential elections. However, it only took a couple of weeks for the Venezuelan dictator to renege on the agreement. Shortly after the opposition primaries took place, the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela, controlled by Maduro, decided to void that electoral process.
Given this decision, several politicians spoke out asking to end the agreement between the United States and Venezuela. One of them was Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who took advantage of a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee this Tuesday, to remind Blinken that Maduro violated the agreement and ask him how he would proceed.
“They canceled the opposition’s primary election and they continue to ban the winner of the primary. They basically wiped out the election. They’ve broken the deal. Are we going to reimpose sanctions?” Rubio asked him.
Blinken responded that the case is being followed closely and assured that the Venezuelan regime does not have a “free pass” to take actions that go against the electoral commitments that Maduro made and that, therefore, if it is considered that the regime violated the agreement, “the necessary action” will be taken.
Just 2 weeks after getting sanctions lifted by Biden #MaduroRegime violated the deal by voiding the opposition party primary election
The sanctions need to come back immediately pic.twitter.com/2uPckXYmON
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 31, 2023
“No one should do business with Maduro”
Republican Senator, Rick Scott also called for the return of sanctions on Venezuela and for no further negotiations with the dictator until free and fair elections are held.
“There should be no sanctions relief. No one should be doing business with Maduro until free and fair elections are held. He (Nicolás Maduro) must accept María Corina as his opponent,” the senator told NTN24.
