Desperate Biden lifts sanctions on brutal Maduro regime

FPI / November 28, 2022

Team Biden is addressing the U.S. energy crisis by encouraging more oil drilling — in the socialist hellhole of Venezuela.

In cutting a deal with one of the most brutal tyrants on the planet in socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, Team Biden lifted some of the sanctions on the Venezuelan regime and its oil giant PDVSA.

The deal allows for additional oil to flow from Venezuela and be exported worldwide.

Venezuela produces at most 800,000 barrels of oil per day, according to energy industry analysts. That figure is up from the average of 525,000 barrels it produced a year ago, but far off its failed target of 1 million a day by the end of 2021 and nowhere near the more than 3 million barrels per day the country was producing in the 1990s.

The U.S. Treasury Department is allowing Chevron to resume “limited” energy production in Venezuela after years of sanctions that have dramatically curtailed oil and gas profits that have flowed to Maduro’s government. Earlier this year the Treasury Department again allowed the California-based Chevron and other U.S. companies to perform basic upkeep of wells it operates jointly with state-run oil giant PDVSA.

"This is the same Maduro regime that was holding a half dozen American citizens hostage in prison cells or house arrest for years until only recently. But now that Joe Biden finds himself in some political trouble, I suppose all is forgiven and it’s back to business as usual because oil is involved," Hot Air's Jazz Shaw noted. "That seems remarkably similar to the way we’re suddenly good buddies with the 'pariah' Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia despite all of the unpleasantness surrounding the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, doesn’t it?"

Lifting the sanctions and allowing Venezuela to export its oil will also benefit Russia, analysts say, because Russia now owns a large chunk Venezuela’s oil resources.

"By giving the green light to Venezuelan oil production, we’re flushing more money into Vladimir Putin’s coffers. Weren’t we supposed to be engaged in economic warfare with Russia to punish them for the invasion of Ukraine? I suppose that’s another one of those 'only when it’s convenient' things," Shaw wrote.

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