Venezuela Confirms Meeting with US, Says Qatar Deal Breached

Andreina Itriago Acosta and Nicolle Yapur
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela confirmed it met with US officials earlier this week and alleged that the Biden administration had breached a Qatar-brokered deal between the parties.

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During the April 9 meeting in Mexico City, the parties reviewed their discussions of sanctions and migration last year in Doha, Venezuela said in a statement Friday. “We pointed out the failure of the North American administration to comply with the agreed schedule for lifting sanctions,” it said, without giving further details.

US officials met secretly with members of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration to keep him engaged in negotiations over democratic reforms, Bloomberg reported earlier. The talks took place days before the scheduled April 18 expiration of a US license allowing the nation’s oil and gas industry to operate without the threat of sanctions.

During the encounter, Venezuela demanded the lifting of all sanctions, according to the statement. US representatives included Daniel Erikson of the US National Security Council and Francisco Palmieri, chief of mission of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit, Bloomberg reported.

Read more: US, Venezuela Secretly Meet in Mexico Before Sanctions Deadline

Maduro has been testing the limits of a US-backed electoral agreement with the opposition last year. Maria Corina Machado, who won an October opposition primary, and her little-known substitute, Corina Yoris, have been barred from running in this year’s presidential race.

The repeated offenses have put Washington in an increasingly uncomfortable situation: whether to reimpose oil and gas sanctions during an election year in which migration has emerged as a key issue for US voters.

If the suspension is lifted, Venezuela could lose a total of $2 billion in oil revenues by the end of 2024, according to Luis Barcenas, the head of Caracas-based economic firm Ecoanalitica. From October until March, the license has enabled Maduro’s government to earn an additional $740 million in oil sales, according to Eduardo Fortuny, head of Dinamica Venezuela, a Caracas-based consultancy firm.

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