US Congress members attend a House meeting. File photo.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress approved a resolution to intensify unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela.
As part of a Democrat-Republican bipartisan agreement, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution that would cancel the few sanctions relief allowed in the General License 44 of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
#ÚltimaHora | El Comité de Exteriores de la Cámara de Representantes de EEUU aprueba la resolución para reimponer las sanciones al régimen de Nicolás Maduro. La propuesta pasaría a la Cámara para ser votada.
Fue un apoyo bipartidista, donde casi todos los demócratas se sumaron. pic.twitter.com/FX8INocJZn
— Orlando Avendaño (@OrlvndoA) March 21, 2024
Now the resolution will go to the House floor for a final vote.
In recent days, Republican Senator Marco Rubio urged the Committee to support the resolution, as a response to the arrests of several leaders of the far-right Vente Venezuela party, made by the Venezuelan authorities for the Vente Venezuela leaders’ involvement in coup attempts in Venezuela.
Following yesterday's crackdown against members of @MariaCorinaYA's team, this is a great step in the right direction. @SenateForeign should follow suit and pass this bipartisan bill ASAP. The U.S. must hold the criminal Maduro narco-regime accountable. https://t.co/wbr4uLOS14
— Senator Marco Rubio (@SenMarcoRubio) March 21, 2024
Rubio’s support for the anti-Venezuela resolution is nothing new, as he has been one of the main promoters of unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela.
He also urges the US government not to allow any sanctions relief to Venezuela.
All the Democrat members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee supported the resolution.
Former US Ambassador Calls to Tighten Sanctions Against Venezuela: ‘Only Way to Overthrow Maduro’
The approval of the resolution occurs one day after the Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab made public the confession of a Vente Venezuela politician who told how he received orders to generate violence in the Venezuelan state of Barinas.
The politician who made the confession is Emil Brandt Ulloa, head of María Corina Machado’s campaign, who was arrested at the beginning of March for conspiracy.
After Brandt’s confession, the Attorney General’s Office requested the courts for nine arrest warrants, of which two have materialized with the arrest of two other Vente Venezuela members, Dinora Hernández and Henry Alviárez.
According to Brandt’s statement, Vente Venezuela leaders Magaly Meda and Henry Alviárez gave Brandt and others instructions from Caracas to carry out acts of destabilization in Barinas, with the aim of forcing the Venezuelan electoral authorities to allow the registration of notorious far-right politician María Corina Machado as a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, although Machado is disqualified from holding public office.
Another leader of Vente Venezuela, Dinora Hernández, coordinated the coup plot called the Great Territorial Alliance project.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/AF
