During an interview with Fox News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently expressed his belief that, under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the US’ foreign policy towards Venezuela and Dictator Nicolas Maduro will be stricter than in previous years.
Secretary Rubio’s interview follows his efforts to broker an agreement where Venezuela agreed to accept deported Venezuelan illegal immigrants from the US as well as release six American hostages.
Rubio rejected critic’s arguments that negotiating with the Venezuelan regime legitimized its autocratic rule, stating that Venezuela has a legal obligation to accept its repatriated nationals.
“Remember, Venezuela stopped taking migration flights, deportations, because they wanted to blackmail Joe Biden,” said Rubio.
Conversely, Rubio assured “President Trump is not going to be blackmailed.”
Trump’s cabinet and close allies, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have lobbied for a hardline approach to Venezuela with the ultimate goal of a democratic transition rather than negotiating with Maduro.
Shortly after Rubio’s statements, Trump announced the revocation of Venezuelan oil export licenses due to Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s refusal to host free and fair elections and cooperate in illegal immigrant deportation flights.
“We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime,” stated Trump.
President Biden granted the licenses as part of the ‘Barbados Agreement’ in exchange for assurances from Dictator Maduro he would host free and fair elections.
The licenses effectively lifted sanctions imposed by Trump on Venezuela during his first presidency.
Yet, despite promises of allowing free and fair elections, the Venezuelan regime barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from participating in the same.
However, Machado invested her political capital into former Venezuelan Ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez, who subsequently won the presidential elections.
Subsequently, Gonzalez was forced to seek political asylum in Spain after the Maduro regime rejected the election results and threatened to arrest him.
Consequently, Trump ordered the sanctions relief enjoyed by Venezuela in the form of oil licenses to end as of March 1st.
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