“The purpose of the trip made by officials from the (President Joe Biden) administration was to discuss a variety of issues that certainly include energy, energy security,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged.
The official added that the delegates from Washington raised the situation of US citizens detained in Venezuela, including six executives of Citgo – the subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in the United States – imprisoned since 2017.
However, he stressed that the energy issue and that of the detainees are “separate conversations” in the dialogue that began “in the course of recent days,” according to the AFP news agency.
The visit of US officials to Caracas was reported in recent days by the US and Venezuelan press, but until now it had not been confirmed by either government.
The United States and Venezuela broke diplomatic relations at the beginning of 2019, when Washington ignored the mandate that President Nicolás Maduro began at the time, considering that it arose from irregular elections.
At that time governed by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, the United States was one of the first to recognize the opposition Juan Guaidó as interim president, appointed by the National Assembly (AN, parliament), which then had a majority opposed to Chavismo.
The situation did not change at the beginning of 2021, when Biden succeeded Trump and the AN came to have a Chavista majority after the expiration of the mandate of the previous legislators, including Guaidó.
Since 2019, Washington has intensified the sanctions applied to Venezuela and, as part of them, reduced its purchases of Venezuelan oil and replaced it with Russian crude, and now seeks to do the opposite, in the midst of the debate on a possible embargo on hydrocarbon exports. of Russia due to this country’s invasion of Ukraine, according to US and Venezuelan media and analysts.
However, in the days prior to the talks recognized today by Psaki, Washington extended the decree that designates Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security and Maduro ratified his “unconditional” alliance with Russia.
Source: Ambito
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