Colombian President Asks Biden to End Sanctions on Venezuela

During a meeting at the White House on Friday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posed to the U.S. President Joe Biden the progressive lifting of sanctions against Venezuela.

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During his meeting with Biden, Petro proposed the definition of a timetable to simultaneously advance in the lifting of sanctions, the holding of elections with guarantees in Venezuela, and the return of this country to the Inter-American Human Rights System.

His idea is that all these aspects remain intertwined with each other until reaching a point where the Venezuelans "decide freely, without pressure and without sanctions, their own destiny."

Sanctions on Venezuela were tightened under President Donald Trump's administration (2017-2021), which imposed economic restrictions against several high-ranking Bolivarian officials and limits on the operations of the Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) company in U.S. territory.

President Biden has upheld many of those sanctions. In Nov. 2022, however, he authorized the Chevron oil company to resume some of its extraction operations in Venezuelan territory.

On April 25, Colombia will host an international summit to discuss the U.S. sanctions against the Bolivarian Revolution and seek the reactivation of the dialogue between the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition.

The Bogota Summit seeks to "establish the minimum elements for a macro agreement that guarantees not only elections and the lifting of sanctions, but also the normality of all political actors in Venezuela," Petro said.