An oil refinery stretches into the purple horizon. Photo: Chevron.
Trump administration gives Chevron 30 days to dismantle its operations in Venezuela
The government of US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that it has terminated the license that allowed the US oil company Chevron to operate in Venezuela and informed Chevron that it has one month, until April 3, to end its operations in the South American country.
Chevron will only have one month, instead of the usual six-month period that is usually granted in these cases, to cease its operations in Venezuela, according to an update of the license that the US granted to the company in 2022 and that was published this Tuesday by the US Treasury Department.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury had maintained the continuity of General License 41 until September 20 of this year. This license authorizes “certain transactions” related to the joint ventures of the US oil company Chevron Corporation in Venezuela, which was issued for the first time on November 26, 2022, as a result of the dialogue table held in Mexico.
However, the fact that the automatic renewal mechanism was applied did not prevent US President Donald Trump from modifying the provision to fulfill his threat to suspend the operations.
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Although Venezuela has fulfilled the commitments agreed upon after the visit of the US envoy Richard Grenell to Miraflores, the Trump government proceeded to apply new sanctions against the country, which, far from being a surprise, confirms Caracas’ complaints about the influence of the Venezuelan far right in the imposition of coercive measures.
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After the announcement that Chevron would continue its operations in Venezuela, the Venezuelan lobby in Miami, Madrid, and Caracas promoted strategies to change this decision. Thus, on February 25, during the debate on a key budget resolution for the Trump administration, several Republican congressmen threatened to block the vote if Chevron’s oil licenses were not revoked.
Finally, the resolution was approved by a narrow margin, confirming that the pressure exerted was decisive. Among the congresspersons involved were María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart.
The Venezuelan opposition analyst, Francisco Rodríguez, who lives in the United States, confirmed on social networks that the Venezuelan far right had a lot to do with the shift in Washington’s policy towards Caracas.
“For years, it was said that the sanctions were a decision of the United States and not of the opposition,” Rodríguez wrote on X. “But if it is true that three legislators from districts with a strong Venezuelan vote pressured Trump to reimpose them, it is clear that the diaspora plays an important role in the sanctions policy.”
Some analysts have commented that the OFAC decision on LG41 is extremely restrictive, reducing the wind-down from 180 to only 30 days, “confirming that the vision of the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the political sector of South Florida in relation to the strategy of maximum pressure prevailed.”
Venezuelan economist Manuel Palmieri told Últimas Noticias that those who have requested sanctioning measures against the country are the same ones who have benefited from them.
“The harassment has been permanent, consistent, and directly aimed at destroying the economic foundations of the country,” Palmieri said. “The country is subject to 1,027 unilateral coercive measures and 53 in just two months of the year.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Randolf Borges
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
