LatinNews Daily - 05 December 2022

Venezuela: On 26 November US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with his peers from the European Union (EU) (Josep Borrell), Canada (Mélanie Joly), and the United Kingdom (James Cleverly), issued a joint statement welcoming the announcement of an agreement between the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro and opposition to request that frozen Venezuelan assets abroad be released to enable their use for humanitarian purposes. The joint statement by Blinken, Borrell, Joly and Cleverly urges the parties to “engage in good faith toward a comprehensive agreement leading to free and fair elections in 2024, the restoration of democratic institutions, and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela”. The statement also calls for “the unconditional release of all those unjustly detained for political reasons, the independence of the electoral process and judicial institutions, freedom of expression including for members of the press, and respect for human rights”. Immediately after the agreement was announced, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a new general licence for oil giant Chevron authorising it to carry out certain activities and transactions in Venezuela, although this does not authorise the payment of any tax or royalties to the Venezuelan government or the payment of dividends to Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), among other conditions.

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