The Biden administration is moving to reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela, citing a failure of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime to live up to commitments to holding free and fair elections this year.
The Treasury Department will allow temporary sanctions relief for the South American country’s oil and gas sector to expire this week and won’t seek a renewal, senior administration officials said Wednesday.
The Biden administration determined that Maduro’s government reneged on key parts of a deal reached last year that offered a temporary easing of sanctions in exchange for promises of democratic reforms, the officials said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that despite some progress under the deal the U.S. was “concerned that Maduro and his representatives prevented the democratic opposition from registering the candidate of their choice, harassed and intimidated political opponents, and unjustly detained numerous political actors and members of civil society.”
