The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), under this department, replaced a license issued in November. It does not specify when the new one expires.
The text authorizes all transactions necessary for the deportation of Venezuelans “from non-US jurisdictions” in the Americas to Venezuela, “in which the Venezuelan Consorcio de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, SA (Conviasa) participates, or any entity in which Conviasa owns, directly or indirectly, a stake of 50% or more.”
It also allows the maintenance and repair of Conviasa aircraft used for these purposes.
In October, the government of US President Joe Biden reached an agreement with Maduro for the “direct repatriation” of Venezuelans to their country.
However, Caracas has suspended flights in protest of Washington’s reactivation of sanctions.
Last October, the United States relaxed some economic sanctions in response to the Barbados agreement between the Maduro dictatorship and the opposition that set the presidential elections for the second half of the year, still undated.
But in January OFAC revoked a license from Minerven, Venezuela’s state gold mining company, and threatened to do the same in April with another that affects the oil industry if all opposition candidates are not allowed to participate. in the elections.
The vice president of the Chavista regime, Delcy Rodríguez, considered it “rude and improper blackmail” and warned that “as of February 13, repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants would be immediately revoked.”
A serious threat for Biden, who aspires to re-election in the November presidential elections and faces an unprecedented immigration crisis on the border with Mexico, one of the key issues of the electoral campaign.
Source: With information from AP
