MIAMI.- The senator Rick Scott urged the president’s government Joe Biden to denounce the Nicolas Maduro following the ratification of the political disqualification against the opposition leader and candidate María Corina Machado.
“If the Biden administration doesn’t care one bit about freedom or free elections, Maduro won’t care. If the Biden administration only wants to maintain gas prices, then María Corina Machado will not be on the ballot”Scott expressed on VPI TV.
Scott added that it is necessary for the US to mobilize the international community to ensure that “no one wants to do business” with the Chavista regime.
The US is weighing the possibility of imposing additional measures against the Maduro regime after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), a body controlled by the regime, blocked Machado’s candidacy. This caused Washington to reimpose a part of the sanctions that it had removed from Venezuela last year because Maduro contravened the Barbados agreement, signed in October 2023 by representatives of the regime and the opposition and in which both parties committed to seek mechanisms to guarantee the participation of all stakeholders in the presidential elections.
Machado won the independently organized opposition primary election in October with more than 90% of the vote. Her victory came despite the regime disqualifying her for 15 years from running for public office.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council said that the US has a clear path to supporting democratic elections and is considering the possibility of imposing additional measures against the Maduro regime.
On Monday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave companies that do business with the Venezuelan state mining company until February 13 to cease operations with it.
In the last quarter of 2023, the Treasury allowed transactions with the mining company, when the Maduro regime agreed to level the playing field in preparation for this year’s presidential election.
In the agreement signed in Barbados, election planning was limited to the second half of 2024 and both parties were called on to “promote the authorization of all presidential candidates and political parties” to participate, as long as they comply with the law. .
On Monday, the US government set a deadline until April for the Maduro regime to comply with the agreements reached with the opposition.
“We have options at our disposal. I’m not going to advance any of them at this time, but we certainly have options with respect to sanctions and those types of things that we can take. You have until April,” the Security Council spokesman said at a press conference. White House Homeland Security, John Kirby.
After the Barbados agreement, the US had lifted some sanctions on Venezuela for a period of six months, which ends next April.
Source: With information from VPI TV / AP
