By Marina Menéndez Quintero on January 31, 2024
photo: El Universal
It could be easily be predicted that the planned presidential elections to be held this year in Venezuela would be the scene of new attempts of pressure from the United States.
Since the publicized election, last October, of right-wing politician María Corina Machado in opposition primaries that did not have the endorsement of the Supreme Electoral Council or the approval of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), the “clucking” within the opposition spectrum, and from the latter outwardly seeking the predictable hype from those aligned with Washington, foreshadowed a “storm” on the horizon.
And the bad weather threatens to turn into a storm, after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department reactivated on Monday the sanctions it had “eased” -among others that have nuanced Joseph Biden’s policy towards Venezuela- on the Venezuelan gold mining company, Minerven, and gave a deadline of February 13 to settle any pending transaction with it.
The decision that once again puts the brakes on the Venezuelan gold exploitation and commercialization intends to put pressure on the Bolivarian authorities regarding a decision that is theirs alone to make. Many media outlets claim that María Corina has just been disqualified by the TSJ, but the truth is that the highest Venezuelan justice entity only ratified last Friday -and for the second time since it had already done so in November- the decision issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Republic since 2015! that Machado could not hold public office for 15 years.
As if the rudeness and interference were not enough, the spokesman of the National Security Council of the White House, John Kirby, added with respect to the Venezuelan Government, with an air of ultimatum, that “they have decisions to make: to allow the opposition parties and candidates to participate “adequately” and to release political prisoners. They have until April”.
Even though Machado is remembered above all for her participation together with Leopoldo López in the instigator plan of the opposition known as The Exit, which provoked a wave of violence with the well-known “guarimbas” and left a toll of more than 40 dead, a quick search of the elements wielded in 2015 demonstrates, among other reasons for the disqualification of María Corina Machado, including having served as alternate representative of Panama to the OAS in 2014, which contravenes the Venezuelan Constitution. Much worse is her attitude, because if one takes into account that Machado sought that nomination to obtain a position to condemn the Government of her country in the plenary of the imperialist oriented Organization of American States.
Now, the decision of the TSJ to ratify the disqualification has been linked by the United States, in addition, with an alleged breach of the agreements adopted by the Government and the non-violent opposition in their last meeting last October, when the government delegation committed itself to comply with what it always does; to ensure free and transparent elections, which does not mean that it should ignore its own institutionality and laws.
In any case, the non-compliance comes from the opposition which, tutored by Washington, has apparently not delivered a single bolivar of the 3 billion dollars of the money illegally seized from Venezuela in assets abroad by order of the White House; money that was supposed to swell a Social Fund to alleviate the consequences of the U.S. punitive measures.
But any threat that could bring down the table that has set the differences on political paths would be worse.
Neither can it be thought that the “less harsh” attitude sustained so far by the Biden administration towards Venezuela, which has facilitated licenses for some oil companies such as Chevron, Repsol and Eni to commercialize Venezuelan crude oil, or which at the time benefited Minerven, is gratuitous or an act of good will.
This has responded, more than anything else, to the very need of the United States and Europe, in the midst of the tight oil and gas supply caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, among other geopolitical tensions that are shaking the planet.
Source: Juventud Rebelde, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English