US agrees with Venezuela to lift sanctions, preserve election laws
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto listens, during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, November 16, 2023. (AP)
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto informed Sputnik that his country has agreed with the United States on a process to begin lifting sanctions against Caracas.
Gil said, "We have agreed with the United States that it will start the process of lifting sanctions. We regard the easing of sanctions as the first step toward this. As for the conditions for the elections, I reiterate that what Venezuela has said or what Venezuela has confirmed with the opposition, is the preservation of electoral guarantees existing in the Venezuelan electoral system, the preservation of the law, the constitution, and the confirmation of these values."
"From that moment, the United States started to lift the sanctions," he continued, calling the European Union's position regarding the conditional lifting of sanctions "ridiculous" and stressing that Venezuela will not bow to anyone's conditions.
EU extended sanctions
"The stance taken by the European Union is ridiculous, pointless and arrogant... We have the constitution and we have the law. Europe should lift all sanctions against Venezuela without any conditions. The decision they made contradicts our constitution and international law. The sanctions must be lifted," Gil noted.
Venezeula and the US had earlier agreed to restore the previous level of daily oil production in Caracas and subsequently double it.
"We have agreed to resume negotiations and the participation of Russian companies in joint ventures within the framework of the agreement that [Venezuelan state-run oil company] PDVSA has. We can say that at the first stage, we are striving to restore the level of production that we had a couple of years ago. The second goal is to increase this level of production at least twice," Gil said.
The EU decided last Monday to extend its sanctions on Venezuela "for six months only instead of one year, until 14 May 2024."
Relying on elections
The negotiations kicked off back in October after Venezuela's government and opposition resumed talks after nearly a year, which led the US to reach a preliminary agreement to ease sanctions if President Nicolas Maduro agreed to elections in 2024 with guarantees for the opposition.
That further prompted the US to provide a six-month ease of sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector, after an agreement between the Venezuelan government and the US-backed opposition was reached regarding the 2024 elections.
The US has sanctioned Venezuela since Washington claimed that Maduro's election in 2018 was a sham and accused President Maduro of being anti-democratic and of numerous human rights violations.
Maduro in October said the country is ready for a new stage of relationship with the US and Western countries based on mutual respect and cooperation.
"Let's restore a relationship of respect, cooperation, yes, cooperation for the sake of peace, coexistence of the entire Western Hemisphere, the entire American and Caribbean continent. This is my message to the decision-makers, those in power and the government of the United States of America," Maduro said at a meeting with a delegation representing the government in talks with the opposition in Barbados.