US lifts sanctions against Venezuela's interim president
Kyiv • UNN
The US Treasury Department lifted restrictions on Delcy Rodriguez after recognizing her as the country's leader. The Trump administration is establishing cooperation for oil sales and investments.
The US on Wednesday lifted sanctions against Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez, according to the US Treasury Department website, UNN reports.
Details
As Reuters notes, this happened less than three months after US forces captured the country's then-president Nicolas Maduro during a raid on the capital.
The Trump administration worked closely with the interim government led by former vice president and Maduro ally Rodriguez, sending US energy and interior ministers on visits to Caracas with potential investors, striking a deal to sell Venezuelan oil to the US, praising changes in the oil and mining sectors aimed at attracting foreign capital, and issuing sanctions waivers.
In March, Washington officially recognized Rodriguez as Venezuela's leader, opening the door for her government to reopen embassies and consulates in the US and regain control of Venezuelan-owned companies abroad.
Rodriguez welcomed the decision, saying in a post on X that it was "a step towards normalizing and strengthening relations between our countries."
"We believe that this progress will allow for the lifting of sanctions currently in place against our country, which will enable the construction and guarantee of an effective agenda of bilateral cooperation for the benefit of our peoples," she said.
The announcement of the lifting of sanctions came after Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday that the Rodriguez administration was preparing to take over the boards of directors of US subsidiaries of state oil company PDVSA, including Citgo Petroleum, citing four sources close to the preparations.
Citgo, the jewel of Venezuela's foreign assets, has been managed since 2019 by supervisory boards appointed by the opposition-led congress, which is no longer active.
There have been repeated rumors that Rodriguez was preparing to travel to the US to meet with Trump. Although she has met with high-level delegations from other countries, she has not yet met personally with the US president in her current capacity.
Many high-ranking officials of the former Maduro government are under sanctions, and some of them, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and recent Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, are accused of drug trafficking and other crimes, which they deny.
Although neither Rodriguez nor her brother Jorge, who heads the National Assembly legislature, have been accused of any alleged crimes in the US, Reuters reports showed that the Trump administration was quietly building a legal case against her to increase its leverage over Caracas, the publication writes.