Talleyrand is trying to make sense of news out of Venezuela. The New York Times reports that a couple of negotiations have failed because they got in each other’s way. The first negotiation was to release some Venezuelan ‘gang members’ held in El Salvador to Venezuela in return for the Venezuelan government releasing some US citizens and Venezuelan ‘political prisoners’. The latter group of Venezuelans would be given the choice to remain in Venezuela or to live in El Salvador. The second negotiation added the resumption of Chevron’s oil exporting from Venezuela. The Venezuelan government evidently favoured this proposal, preferring to receive petrodollars instead of human beings in exchange for their own undesirables. But that was a non-starter due to the objections of several members of Congress from Florida who threatened to vote against the giant budget bill just passed into law. These politicians (pictured above) are under pressure from Venezuelan and other exiles living in their districts who are unhappy that their friends and relatives are now being deported to El Salvador and elsewhere. The first negotiation was overseen by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Rubio is also the National Security Advisor, who is meant to coordinate foreign policies and the efforts of government departments and agencies. The second negotiation was overseen by Richard Grenell, who is the president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grenell is also ‘the special presidential envoy for special missions’. The New York Times reporters add that there’s not much evidence that the Venezuelans currently held in El Salvador are gang members. Some may well be political exiles who fled to the USA. It’s also possible that some of the Venezuelans now imprisoned in Venezuela are gang members, but who can say? Theoretically, a Venezuelan political activist who escaped to the USA, then was sent to El Salvador by the USA, and then back to Venezuela by El Salvador (at the behest of the USA), could be exchanged for a Venezuelan gang member who was detained in Venezuela, released (at the behest of the USA), and then went to live in El Salvador. For now nobody has been released, and no oil exports have resumed. The USA continue to pay ‘millions of dollars’ to El Salvador to imprison Venezuelans and many others. Talleyrand is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Talleyrand that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. |