Biden admin moves to bring back Venezuelan oil sanctions

The Department of the Treasury on Wednesday announced that it would permit the expiration of sanctions relief on Venezuelan oil in light of the government's failure to hold free elections.

The administration announced a deal in October of last year to ease sanctions temporarily on condition that Caracas implement democratic reforms, though Washington indicated that the country had failed to follow through on its commitments.

"Maduro and his representatives prevented the democratic opposition from registering the candidate of their choice, harassed and intimidated political opponents, and unjustly detained numerous political actors and members of civil society," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, according to Politico.

The deal with Venezuela had attracted scrutiny from American oil and gas producers over Washington's apparent willingness to facilitate fossil fuel production outside of the U.S. but not within its borders.

"Here in the U.S., the Biden administration has aggressively gone after the US producers for methane emissions in an effort to drive up our costs while doing everything it can to bring more Venezuelan production online from an oil and gas industry that is a Marxist, state-owned enterprise," U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart told Just the News at the time.

President Nicolás Maduro has governed the country since first winning election in 2013. He won reelection in 2018 in a contest international denounced as illegitimate and is next expected to hold an election in July.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.