PDVSA oil exports, imports OK
On Friday, the Trump administration slapped financial sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to pressure the government of President Nicolas Madura to stop practices and policies that the US says enriches and rewards corrupt government officials.
The White House accuses Venezuelan government officials of “opaque financing schemes and liquidating the country’s assets at fire sale prices.”
The sanctions bar banks from any new financial deals with the government or the state-run oil company, PDVSA. The move is expected to escalate tensions between the US and Venezuela and deepen the country’s crippling economic crisis.
In a statement, the White House said “To mitigate harm to the American and Venezuelan people, the Treasury Department is issuing general licenses that allow for transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by the Executive Order.”
One of the exclusions is the export and import of petroleum and transactions only involving Citgo, PDVSA’s US unit. But the sanctions do prohibit dealings in new debt and equity issued by the Venezuelan government and PDVSA.
The sanctions come after President Maduro created a Constituent Assembly which the US says usurps the powers of the democratically-elected National Assembly, and breaks the country’s legitimate constitutional order.
According to the White House, “These measures are carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule, protect the United States financial system from complicity in Venezuela’s corruption and in the impoverishment of the Venezuelan people, and allow for humanitarian assistance.”
