Former US President Donald Trump may have disappeared noisily into history but the sword of Damocles which he has left over the head of the Maduro administration in Venezuela remains dangling menacingly and Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, appears in no hurry to remove it.
This week Caribbean News.net quoted “experts” as warning that South America’s one-time oil giant could be heading for another of its accustomed crises unless Washington lifts the sanctions that are preventing the Maduro administration from swapping its crude oil for refined diesel.
From all reports Caracas’ oil refinery infrastructure is in no condition to produce the volumes of diesel which the country requires so that the country has become increasingly dependent on imported diesel fuel for its electricity and transportation sectors. Reportedly, no diesel shipments have arrived in Venezuela since October 2020 and existing supplies are expected to run out in March.
The impending deepening of the crisis in Venezuela has focused attention on the new political leadership in Washington in the matter of just whether it will relax the sanctions of its predecessor or whether it intends to continue to go for the jugular.
Media reports have quoted White House Press Secretary Jean Psaki as saying that Washington’s approach under the Biden presidency will be to push for a peaceful and democratic transition through free and fair elections though she reportedly made the point that the US will prosecute Maduro supporters implicated in corruption and human rights violations.
Venezuela’s gas shortage arising out of what is reportedly the near collapse of the country’s oil industry has compelled the country to acquire both diesel and gasoline through bartering arrangements with companies like Repsol in Spain, Reliance in India and Eni in Italy, and the Russian oil company Rosneft.
Sufficient time may not yet have elapsed to allow for a clear assessment of how the new administration in Washington will handle the Venezuela situation which it inherited from its predecessor though enough has happened up to this time to suggest that Joe Biden’s Washington is not about to return relations between the two countries to a condition of normalcy in which it is prepared to leave behind what it says is the Maduro administration’s illegal occupancy of political office and its human rights transgressions.
In October last year the previous US administration prohibited oil companies from engaging Venezuela in crude for refined oil swaps, essentially intensifying the pressure on the Maduro administration which pressure had originally still allowed for diesel trade. Those swaps continued to be sustained through companies like Repsol, Reliance and Eni. Reports from Venezuela now suggest that “not a single ship loaded with imported fuel has arrived in the country since October 24 of last year.”
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