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Maduro called the meeting “respectful, cordial and very diplomatic.”
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, confirmed this Monday in a televised message that he met with senior officials of the United States government at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas over the weekend.
Maduro described the meeting as “respectful, cordial and very diplomatic”.
The White House also confirmed the meeting, which discussed various topics including energy and energy security, according to spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The meeting came amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and just days before the US announced it would ban imports of oil, natural gas and coal from Russia as a sanction.
The meeting of Venezuelan and American representatives this weekend in Caracas is the first since Washington broke relations with Caracas in 2019, after imposing sanctions and accusing Maduro of electoral fraud.
The United States recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela, however, Maduro received the visiting delegation as president in his presidential office with the flags of both countries displayed.
“There were the flags of the United States and Venezuela, and they looked very nice together,” declared the Venezuelan leader.
Although the details of the conversations that lasted two hours were not disclosed, Maduro hinted in his message that the problem of rising oil prices in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the veto of Russian crude oil production was on the table.
“We have agreed to work on an agenda from the respect and hope of the world, in order to advance an agenda that allows the well-being and peace of the peoples of the region,” he declared.
without mentioning dates, Maduro added that the talks would continue.
According to the Archyde.com news agency, the US delegation was made up of Juan González, the White House’s top adviser on Latin American affairs, Ambassador James Story and Roger Carstens, US special envoy for hostage affairs.
On the Venezuelan side, in addition to Maduro, the first lady and deputy Cilia Flores, and the president of the Chavista National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, attended.
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Jen Psaki, a White House spokeswoman, said energy security issues, among a number of others, had been addressed.
After the meeting with Maduro, the same US delegation met Juan Guaidórecognized by Washington as interim president of Venezuela, and with other representatives of the opposition in Venezuela.
Guaidó did not make direct comments on the matter, but issued a statement in which he said that he will provide “more information on the meeting held with said delegation, after completing coordination work with the US government, attending to reasons of national interest and security.” of our ally.
However, Guaidó’s ambassador to the US, Carlos Vecchio, published a series of messages on Twitter criticizing any possible energy negotiations with the Maduro government.
“Buying oil from Maduro or Putin is the same. They are blood oil,” Vecchio wrote.
In the United States there was also strong criticism from hard-line legislators who oppose the Maduro government and advocate regime change.
“That Biden organizes secret meetings with the narco-terrorist Maduro without even informing Venezuelans that they have suffered and risked everything by opposing Maduro is a vile betrayal,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter on Monday, according to the AFP agency.
For his part, Democratic Senator Bob Menéndez, who also chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared in a statement: “Nicolás Maduro is a cancer in our hemisphere and we should not give a new life to his regime of torture and murder.” .
Why is Washington approaching Caracas now?
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The United States wants Venezuela to distance itself from Russia.
According to experts consulted by the newspaper The New York Timeswhich leaked information about the meeting and its particular context over the weekend, Washington is looking for alternatives to Russian oil.
Since April 2019, the US has not allowed Venezuela to trade its crude oil on the US market, a trade that represented 96% of the South American country’s income.
But when sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas exports began to be applied, several influential figures affiliated with both major US political parties took aim at Venezuela as a potential substitute to supply the shortage generated by the sanctions.
Venezuela produces some 800,000 barrels of oil a day, but that’s just a fraction of the 3 million it produced a day for years.
400,000 barrels more
This Tuesday the head of the Venezuelan Oil Chamber, Reinaldo Quintero, told the BBC that his country could increase its oil production by 400,000 barrels per day to help replace Russian oil.
Quintero assured that the South American country has the infrastructure to raise its production levels from the current 800,000 barrels per day to 1.2 million.
“That will allow us to meet some of the needs [en] the North American market,” he said.
Quintero assured that he does not expect the sanctions, imposed by former President Donald Trump, to be lifted, but that the Biden administration will probably issue licenses that allow foreign companies to operate in Venezuela, thus exempting them from sanctions.
This, he said, would also allow much-needed foreign investment in Venezuela’s cash-hungry oil industry and alleviate a shortage of skilled workers.
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