(Reuters) – The United States and Venezuela have a fraught recent history marked by broken diplomatic relations, sanctions and accusations of criminal activity and coup-plotting.
U.S. President Donald Trump – who during his first term used a “maximum pressure” sanctions policy against President Nicolas Maduro – referred to Maduro as a dictator during the 2024 U.S. campaign.
The administration of former U.S. president Joe Biden reinstated broad oil sanctions in April after it said Maduro failed to keep promises for a free election.
It also imposed targeted sanctions on dozens of officials and increased rewards for the capture or conviction of leaders including Maduro after a contested July election and Maduro’s third-term inauguration, leaving Trump limited options for further penalties.
Maduro’s government has always rejected sanctions by the United States and others, saying they are illegitimate measures which amount to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.
The top Trump officials expected to have influence over how the administration handles Maduro include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long-time Maduro critic, and Richard Grenell, a former intelligence chief who is Trump’s envoy for special missions.
Grenell has said he is speaking with Venezuelan officials and planned to meet the opposition, whose leader Edmundo Gonzalez is recognized by Washington and the European parliament as the winner of Venezuela’s election.
PIVOTAL LICENSE
Trump’s administration is reviewing a license that has allowed U.S. oil company Chevron to expand oil operations in Venezuela in order to recoup debt owed to it by the country, sources have said.
Chevron’s license could be amended or terminated, potentially ending a steady revenue source for Maduro’s administration since early 2023. The money has lifted Venezuela’s economy, especially its oil and banking sectors.
Rubio told the U.S. Senate the Chevron license needed to be “re-explored,” while Trump has made repeated comments about the U.S. not needing imports of Venezuelan oil.
Some European companies which received similar U.S. authorizations, including Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom, could also see licenses changed or terminated, leaving them less room to negotiate with state oil company PDVSA.
POLITICAL TRANSITION
Washington has long said it supports democratic elections – verified by observers – in Venezuela, and the Biden administration rejected the official results of the July 2024 vote, recognizing the opposition’s Gonzalez as president-elect.
Venezuelan opposition leaders have since been lobbying U.S. officials to increase pressure on Maduro for a political transition.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and Gonzalez spoke with Rubio last week, with Rubio calling Gonzalez “Venezuela’s rightful president.”
Maduro, who both Venezuela’s electoral authority and top court say won the election, has scoffed at concern from the U.S. and others.
Last year is not the first time the U.S. has doubted the legitimacy of a Maduro re-election.
Reuters reported in 2020 that Grenell secretly met with a Maduro representative to work out the Venezuelan leader’s exit from power after his 2018 re-election, considered a sham by most Western countries, to no end.
IMMIGRATION AND GANGS
Trump has kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, pledging mass deportations.
Deportees are expected to include Venezuelans, who have left their country by the millions, though it is unclear where they may be sent if Venezuela will not accept them.
Venezuelan officials have long floated the possibility they could reject migrant flights over sanctions.
Some 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States were eligible for deportation reprieves granted by the Biden administration.
Trump said the day before his inauguration that he would remove members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua from the United States.
Venezuelan attorney general Tarek Saab said last week his country definitively destroyed the gang there in 2023, adding his office is willing to restart legal cooperation with the U.S. in order to extradite Venezuelan members of the gang.
DETAINEES
It is unclear exactly how many Americans or dual citizens are being held by Venezuela, but Venezuelan officials have spoken publicly about at least nine.
Maduro’s officials have accused most of them of terrorism and said some were high-level “mercenaries”.
Venezuela has regularly accused members of the opposition and foreign detainees of conspiring with U.S. entities such as the Central Intelligence Agency to plan terrorist attacks. U.S. officials have consistently denied this.
In late 2023, Venezuela’s government released dozens of prisoners including 10 Americans after months of negotiations, while the U.S. released a close ally of Maduro.
CITGO
An auction of shares in a Citgo Petroleum parent company to repay some $21 billion in claims for debt defaults and expropriations by Venezuela and PDVSA is set to be reorganized after a year-long sale process ended in shambles.
A U.S. federal court in Delaware is auctioning the shares in PDV Holding, a U.S. subsidiary of PDVSA and the indirect sole stockholder of Citgo.
The Venezuelan government has characterized the auction as theft of national assets, while Venezuela’s opposition wanted the dispute resolved under their country’s law. The final sale deal must be approved by the U.S. Treasury.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Ted Hesson and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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