1y ago

US moves to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela after opposition candidate barred from presidential election

www.cnn.com

US moves to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela after opposition candidate barred from presidential election | CNN

The US has reimposed economic sanctions against a Venezuelan state-owned mining company and says it could go on to reimpose further sanctions on the country’s oil and gas sector after Venezuela’s Supreme Court barred main opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado from running for president last week.

The US Treasury on Monday revoked General License 43, which had authorized dealings with mining conglomerate CVG-Minerven. The Treasury said US companies have until February 13 to wind down transactions that were previously authorized by that license.

While US economic sanctions against the mining company are unlikely to cause significant damage to the Venezuelan economy, the US State Department has crucially signaled it intends to renew oil and gas sanctions from April 18, if there’s no progress between Venezuela’s authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro and the opposition “particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s elections,” it said in a statement.

67 comments

She wants to privatize huge swathes of the Venezuelan government and wants a Milei style capitalist "shock therapy". She's on record not only stating that helping poor people is bad, but defends the statement. She'd make a bad situation for the Venezuelan people far, far worse. Of fucking course she should be barred from running. The US should stop intervening in South America.
- Barring people from running because you dislike their platform is as fascist as it gets.
  
  Kinda weird since the US bars anyone from running under many different reasons from age to location of birth. Hell, in some states you can't run for office if you have a felony or are atheist. In Florida if you don't like someone running against you there just needs to be some bullshit charges and a paid off judge to gets some felony charges. Then in Arizona they are trying to remove the way the state delegates electorates based on popular vote so that the votes don't matter.
  People can be barred from running under many legal reasons in mostly every government. Baring people from running if they are advocating for things that are believed to be bad for the nation is at least well intentioned. What intention does baring someone from running for president simply because they were born somewhere else?
  All of this ignoring how the US general elections are decided by two parties and the primaries they run where you can be snubbed for your platform. "Ah well it's not the government doing it, it's just the parties that control the government that are doing it"
  
  What definition of fascism is it that prevents fascists from running for president?
  
  Should Trump be barred from running?
Oh yeah more sanctions for trouble areas. Surely this will help our immigration problem
- What immigration problem?
I don't think they should have barred Machado from running, but I also don't think the US should sanction them over it. American meddling never improves this sort of situation, especially when in the form of hurting a country's economy.
Oh, you're a victim of a government we deem undemocratic? We'll further suffocate you economically then!
- Sanctions should be recognized as a crime against humanity.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez described the move as “blackmail” on Tuesday, warning that Caracas would stop cooperating in repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants from the US if Washington’s “economic aggression” intensifies.
In October, the Biden administration lifted general economic sanctions targeting Venezuela’s mining and oil industries, in support of an agreement struck in Barbados between Maduro and the opposition to hold free and fair elections in 2024.
Earlier on Monday, White House’s spokesperson John Kirby had said Maduro had until April to return to the negotiating table and commit to what was agreed last year, including holding free elections where all candidates are allowed to run, or sanctions could be reimposed.
It also has the potential to impact the US domestic gas market because several US companies, including Chevron, operate in Venezuela and Venezuelan crude is regularly exported to refineries in the US Gulf Coast, data from the US Energy Information Administration show.
In an interview with CNN’s Isa Soares on Tuesday, Machado warned millions more Venezuelans could flee the country if Maduro doesn’t comply with commitments to hold free elections.
Machado also commented on Rodríguez’s warning that Venezuela could stop cooperating on repatriation flights, saying, “You can imagine that it breaks my heart to see our people being used in such a hard and unlawful way.
The original article contains 555 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- How long can Maduro continue to starve his people and threaten his neighbors before the world steps in and does something?
  
  Ah, the good ol "spreading of democracy" in an oil rich country. A true classic.
  
  This is in very poor taste as a comment on an article about the US increasing sanctions that really will make Venezuelans go hungry.
  
  How many times must the US interfere with countries and elections in the global south before people realize that these types of articles suggesting war, coups, and sanctions are just puppeting US State propaganda?
Expect more Venezuelans crossing the border then.
"Democracy is Bad, Actually" - Terminally Online 'Leftists'
- Do you believe someone who foments an insurrection like Trump should be allowed to participate in a good faith election? I don’t know the specifics of what’s happening in Venezuela but simply barring someone from an election isn’t the full context you need to properly evaluate the decision.
  
  I don’t know the specifics of what’s happening in Venezuela
  Maduro is deeply unpopular and the authoritarian regime in Venezuela has been trying to avoid having actual elections.
  
  Sounds like it's a similar charge for her. She was implicated in some kind of conspiracy against the government, including getting sanctions on them and possible assassinations, as well as corruption and fermenting violent protests. It could all be faked or trumped up, but it is interesting that everybody here is assuming it is while the US literally is going through the same thing right now, except we might end up with a fascist President if we don't get him off the fucking ballot.
- Allowing every single person to run in an election =/ democracy. Years later, when you eventually read an article buried in the back pages of the NYT, that this candidacy was funded and propped by the US government JUST like so many before it, maybe it'll sink in. Probably not, but maybe this one instance among so many will do the trick.
  
  Proof?
- You can disagree with Maduro and his autocratic actions without supporting sanctions that mostly harm the civilian population.

67 comments