CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido said yesterday that a lifting of U.S. sanctions on the South American country should depend on “real progress” toward a democratic transition, after U.S. officials held talk with President Nicolas Maduro.
For years, opposition leaders in the OPEC member country have been demanding free elections to solve a long-running economic crisis and replace Maduro, whose 2018 re-election was criticized by Washington and many Western countries as a farce.
U.S. officials met in Caracas on Saturday with Maduro, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the prospect of Venezuela supplying some oil exports to the United States as part of a potential deal to ease trade sanctions.
“The lifting of sanctions must be conditioned on real progress towards the transition to democracy and freedom in Venezuela and be translated into direct solutions for the lives of Venezuelans,” Guaido said in a statement.
Guaido added he has “permanent and public” willingness to resume suspended talks between the opposition and Maduro’s administration.
Maduro also expressed his willingness to reactivate talks after the U.S. delegation’s visit, but no date has yet been announced.
Venezuela released two imprisoned U.S. citizens on Tuesday night in an apparent gesture of goodwill towards Washington. One of those released prisoners was Gustavo Cardenas, one of the six former Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017 and convicted on charges Washington says were fabricated. The other is a Cuban-American, identified as Jorge Alberto Fernandez, who was detained on unrelated charges.
