Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez shows two memoranda of understanding signed between the governments of Venezuela and the US, that the US government has mostly not complied with, April 17, 2024. Photo: X/@ReinaldoRivas77.
The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela and head of the Venezuelan government delegation to the talks with the opposition and the US authorities, Jorge Rodríguez, called out the United States for non-compliance with the agreements signed with Venezuela and for not lifting the illegal sanctions. At a press conference held on Wednesday, April 17 in the National Assembly headquarters, Rodríguez showed documents evidencing the US government’s non-compliance with the agreements, and expressed, “We keep our word; we will never tolerate ultimatums… We should see who complied and who did not comply with their promises and commitments.”
Condemning the US Treasury Department’s announcement of revoking License 44 that provided some temporary relief from unilateral coercive measures for the Venezuelan oil and gas sector, Rodriguez stated that it was at the request of the US government that the Venezuelan government and a US delegation began talks on May 7, 2023 in Doha, Qatar, to address several issues “in energy, political, diplomatic, and migration matters.”
“At the request of the United States government, we agreed to travel to the city of Doha and the first meetings were held on May 7, 2023,” Rodríguez explained. “With the assistance of Mr. Juan González, special delegate of the Central Security Agency of the United States; Brian A. Nichols, undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and other officials of the State Department, the National Security Agency, the Treasury Department’s shadowy OFAC office, we initiated the first contacts to seek to build bridges and be able to talk.”
He stressed that from the very first moment “the US delegation expressed that its intention was to seek the lifting of the sanctions against Venezuela, the unilateral coercive measures.”
He added that the Venezuelan government’s premise was to insist on ending the sanctions and to emphasize that these measures should never have been imposed because they were illegal, illegitimate, and a violation of international law.
Stressing that Venezuela is an independent and sovereign country that “shook off the imperial chains many years ago,” Rodríguez stated that the Venezuelan government, unlike the US government and the Venezuelan opposition, has complied with its part of the agreements signed.
Other meetings and signing of memoranda
Rodríguez gave a summary of the various meetings that the Venezuelan delegation held with the US, such as the meetings held on June 3-4, 2023 in Milan, Italy; June 8 and June 10, 2023 in Doha, Qatar; August 3-4, 2023 in Milan; September 27-28, 2023 and the last two meetings held in Mexico City this year.
He commented that unlike the Venezuelan delegation, the US delegation was gradually growing in size, as the US side went on incorporating “lawyers from the White House, additional representatives from the State Department, representatives from other offices of the Biden administration. In the case of Venezuela, we were the same fantastic foursome: Héctor Rodríguez, Reinaldo Rivas, Larry Devoe, and Jorge Rodríguez.”
Washington Revokes Oil and Gas License Issued to Venezuela (+Sanctions)
Two memoranda of understanding with the US
At the press conference, Rodríguez showed the two memoranda of understanding signed between Venezuela and the US on September 28, 2023. One of them focused on the issue of sanctions and the other on electoral and political issues in Venezuela.
He pointed out that the United States’ recognition of the government of President Nicolás Maduro was such that the heading of the memoranda was: “The delegations of the United States of America… and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela intend to take a series of steps leading to the normalization of diplomatic relations.”
Showing the documents, Rodríguez stated, “This spider web that you see here is the signature of the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols, and here is the signature of Jorge Rodríguez.” He added that there are photographic evidence for these signatures. He showed one such photo, in which he is seen together with Nichols signing one of the memoranda in Doha.
Rodríguez read part of the memoranda. As part of the agreements, Venezuela committed to agree with the Unitary Platform on the next round of dialogue, and this dialogue was carried out. He pointed out that at that time the United States promised to support the dialogue and “issue specific licenses to facilitate the payment of the Petrocaribe debt of Haiti, Belize, and Dominican Republic to Venezuelan entities.” In this regard he mentioned that one of the “great barbarities” of the sanctions is that if some country or entity owes money to Venezuela, the US prevents them from paying.
He decried that Haiti’s license was issued much later and with a partial amount, not the total amount of the debt. “We have always been willing to support the people of Haiti. As of today, the licenses have not been issued for either the Dominican Republic or Belize,” he stated.
The memoranda also contemplated modifying the licenses for Trinidad and Tobago so that the country could pay in cash the transactions with PDVSA, which Rodríguez confirmed that the US government finally did. “And to issue a letter of conformity to European companies for oil exploration in Venezuela, that was also complied with, belatedly, but it was complied with,” he added. He commented that the US waited for the Barbados Agreement to be signed in order to partially comply with its commitments.
The second memoranda was on an agreement between the Venezuelan government and the far-right’s coalition Unitary Platform, which was signed in Barbados. This included authorization to presidential candidates “who comply with the established legal and constitutional requirements to participate in the presidential elections.”
“All candidates who comply with the requirements established by law may participate, but if they do not comply with the Constitution and the laws then we cannot endorse the violation of the Constitution and the laws. We said it dozens of times,” Rodríguez emphasized, adding that the mechanism to address the situation of the disqualifications was proposed by the opposition sectors.
He stated that one of the agreements was the rejection of violence, which has been complied with by the Venezuelan government but neither by the opposition nor by the US.
“Since we started talking with the US delegation, on May 7, 2023, to date, there have been nine conspiracies against the peace of the Republic; nine attempts against high-level officials of the Republic, including President Nicolás Maduro Moros,” he pointed out.
Rodríguez urged the people of Venezuela to stand up against the blockade and the more than 900 sanctions imposed on the country by the US and its allies. “Since the United States turned its back on the people of Venezuela, we ask the people of Venezuela to raise their voices against the sanctions, against those who asked for and promoted the sanctions,” he said. “Venezuela is going to continue to recover, even more than it has recovered.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
