Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The United States has on Monday, imposed sanctions against Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA in order to break off financial resources to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and redirected them towards the nation’s self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido.

According to Sputnik news reports, in a White House press briefing on Monday, Sputnik quoted national security advisor John Bolton as saying: “We have continued to expose the corruption of Maduro and his cronies and today’s action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the Venezuelan people.”

Bolton further called on all “responsible nations” to recognize Guaido as the legitimate president of the country (Venezuela), according to CNN reports. He confirmed that US vice president Mike Pence has planned to meet Guaido’s envoy to the US soon.

In a statement, Bolton said: “The vice president has had several conversations with Interim president Guaido, including the night before we granted recognition. He will be meeting with Guaido’s ambassador here in the near future.”

In a separate statement, Bolton said he believed Venezuela’s military was looking forward to ways to support Guaido.

The US president Donald Trump’s administration has also announced to block assets of Venezuela worth USD 7 billion owned by PDVSA. The US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said all Venezuelan oil purchases made by US companies will be directed into a block account.

During Monday’s press briefing, Mnuchin said, “The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline.” He told reporters, “I expect very modest impacts on the US refineries. We’ve been working with them closely on these issues.”

He said, “We have also issued general licenses to  ensure that certain European and Caribbean countries can make an orderly transition,” adding, “We continue to call on all of our allies and partners to join the United States in recognizing interim President Guiado and blocking Maduro from being able to access PDVSA funds.”

“We will use all diplomatic and economic tools to support Guaido”, Mnuchin stressed at a White House press briefing.

He said, “The path to sanctions relief for PDVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the interim president or a subsequent democratically elected government who is committed to taking concrete and meaningful actions to combat corruption.”

He added, “We also today call on Venezuelan military and security forces to accept the peaceful, democratic and constitutional transfer of power,” further adding, “To a certain extent, this has already begun. We have seen Venezuelan officials and military personnel heeding this call. The Venezuelan defense attache here in Washington recognized President Guiado a few days ago, and just within the past hours, the first consular of Venezuela’s Consulate in Miami Scarlet Salazar has also declared for interim President Guiado. I call on responsible nations to recognize interim President Guaido immediately”.

Meanwhile, Guaido has on Monday, ordered to start the process of reappointing the boards of directors of PDVSA oil and gas company and its subsidiary in the US – Citgo.

In a statement on Twitter, Guaido wrote: “To start the process of appointing the boards of directors of PDVSA and Citgo that will allow us to begin the process of recovery of our industry, which is now facing hard times. We make this decision to ensure that Citgo continues to be a Venezuelan company.”

PDVSA head Manuel Quevedo and its employees have repeatedly expressed their support for Maduro.

The US officials said the sanctions were imposed against the country in order to prevent the Maduro government from siphoning funds from PDVSA.

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