The Biden administration’s interest in regaining access to Venezuelan oil is facing stiff opposition at home over concerns it would prop up an autocratic regime that is a close ally of Russia.
The pushback comes from both Republicans and many prominent Democrats, as well as Venezuela’s U.S.-backed opposition, that recently warned officials in Washington it is a mistake to consider turning Caracas back into an energy ally without restoring democracy there first.
“The democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people, much like the resolve and courage of the people of Ukraine, are worth much more than a few thousand barrels of oil,” Sen.
Bob Menendez
(D., NJ), an influential ally of President Biden who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement earlier this week.
The bilateral opposition to tapping into Venezuelan crude underpins the political minefield for the Biden administration as it seeks alternative sources of oil for the U.S. during Russia’s war on Ukraine, which prompted the White House to ban Russian oil and has led to soaring prices.
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in 2019, shortly after President
Nicolás Maduro
won re-election in a vote widely seen as a sham. The sanctions hit an already battered oil industry in Venezuela, which says it has among the world’s largest oil reserves but has seen its output decline over the past two decades of mismanagement by its socialist government.
Last weekend, senior U.S. officials met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas in the first trip by a White House official to Venezuela since 1999, when the late Socialist firebrand Hugo Chávez took office. The delegation included
Juan Gonzalez,
the White House special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs; Jim Story, the Colombia-based ambassador to Venezuela; and Roger Carstens, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
U.S. officials are exploring the idea of easing sanctions to allow U.S. companies to invest again in Venezuela’s oil sector and help raise the country’s production of about 800,000 barrels a day, say people familiar with the matter. In addition, the White House also sees an opportunity to reduce Russian influence in Venezuela, which is Russia’s top ally in South America, and rethink a U.S. policy toward Venezuela that has failed to dislodge Mr. Maduro from power.
After the meeting with Mr. Maduro, the U.S. officials held a call on Sunday with Venezuelan opposition leader
Juan Guiado
to explain Washington’s position, according to a senior member of the Venezuelan opposition.
Mr. Guaidó, who is recognized by Washington as the country’s interim president, was angered, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. He wrote a letter to Mr. Biden arguing that Venezuela isn’t in a position to produce enough crude to ease oil prices and that lifting sanctions would reward a dictator responsible for forcing millions of Venezuelans to leave the country, this person said.
A few days after the U.S. visit, Mr. Maduro, who has long sought to have sanctions lifted, agreed to restart negotiations with…
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