The European Union is tempering its relationship with Venezuela, after years of cold chapters due to the violations of human rights by the Government of Nicolás Maduro. Now, after the admission of the candidacy of the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia for the July 28 elections and the regime inviting a European mission to the elections, the EU decided this Monday to temporarily alleviate some sanctions imposed on the American country. Thus, it will remove the president of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, Elvis Amoroso, and three other people from that organization from its black list (prohibition of entry to any of the 27 countries of the community club and freezing of assets) upon seeing “encouraging steps.” on the path to the July elections.
The EU has not imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela – unlike the United States – but rather those aimed at specific people and the embargo on weapons and “repression equipment.” On its list of restrictions it currently has 54 people sanctioned for their attacks on democracy, the rule of law and human rights. To the temporary relief of removing four people from that list, the Union adds another measure: although the sanctions are renewed annually, it has extended them only until January 10, 2025, the constitutionally established date for the inauguration of the next elected president, explained the community spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peter Stano.
The Twenty-Seven believe that the evolution between the Government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition is positive. However, there is still a long way to go for normalization. The Venezuelan opposition is campaigning around González Urrutia after María Corina Machado, who had won the opposition primaries in October, was disqualified and her replacement, Corina Yoris, was not allowed to run.
Washington has already eased some of those sanctions (such as those on some oil licenses), but is gradually reimposing them after the Maduro government began another wave of political repression. After pressure from the United States, Chavismo decided to allow the registration of González Urrutia’s candidacy, a movement after which Washington is once again studying making the restrictions more flexible.
“With this important and positive signal we recognize the recent encouraging steps and reconfirm our commitment and support for the proper development of the electoral process,” explained spokesperson Stano. “The EU remains committed to supporting an inclusive dialogue process led by Venezuela and the democratic process towards political coexistence between all parties, and welcomes the commitment of all Venezuelans to the democratic path leading to the presidential elections on 28 July,” says the spokesperson.
Already at the end of last year, Spain, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, demanded that some of the restrictions be eased when elections were called given the positive evolution of the political dialogue. Albares then recalled that the sanctions were not made to be “eternal,” but rather to serve as a lever for change.
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In summer, on the sidelines of the EU-CELAC summit—Community of Latin American and Caribbean States—in Brussels, the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the head of the opposition Unitary Platform delegation, Gerardo Blyde, met with five European leaders and Latin Americans as guarantors: the presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; Argentina, Alberto Fernández; Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; France, Emmanuel Macron, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell. The objective of that meeting was to urge the Maduro Government to resume dialogue for the 2024 presidential elections, explore the lifting of some sanctions and urge the United States, which does maintain economic restrictions, to lift them if Venezuela took the path of dialogue.
Brussels is now analyzing whether to send the electoral mission to Venezuela to provide an “independent and impartial evaluation of the electoral process.”
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