Image Source: OilNow. On April 17, the Biden administration announced that the full range of sanctions would be leveraged against Venezuela due to President Nicolás Maduro’s failure to abide by the terms of the Barbados Agreement. The amended General License 44, which for six months allowed U.S. companies to invest in and export Venezuelan oil, now calls for companies to wind down operations before a complete snap back of sanctions on May 31. This will mark a major financial setback for Venezuela, which recently reached its highest level of oil sales since the COVID-19 pandemic as foreign inve ..read more

Source: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images. In October 2023, Curaçao, an autonomous country under the Netherlands constitution with a population of 152,000 people, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to potentially reopen its long-idle Isla refinery with Oryx Petroleum, which is partially owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. Although the deal is not complete, the lengthy odyssey surrounding the reactivation of Curaçao’s refinery is pulling the Dutch Caribbean island into a complicated matrix of geopolitics between the United States, the Netherlands, China, and Venezuela.     ..read more

Source: Matias Delacroix/AP. The announcement by the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly that the country would hold a consultative referendum, by direct and secret ballot, to decide the possible annexation of the Essequibo region in Guyana has generated tensions among the South American neighbors. With more than 160,000 km² of territory, offshore oil areas offering a high potential for exploitation, and an estimated population of approximately 125,000 inhabitants, Essequibo (also known as Guayana Esequiba or Esequibo) is an area that has long been the subject of disputed boundaries ..read more

Source: Orinoco Tribune. In the context of unfolding global conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the dangers of an increasingly aggressive yet economically fragile People’s Republic of China (PRC), Venezuela’s provocative referendum on its claim to two thirds of the territory of neighboring Guyana has received understandably little attention in Washington, D.C. In seeking legal action from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the government of Guyana presented evidence not only that Venezuela was holding a referendum on a decision not yet resolved by the Court but that it was seek ..read more

Source: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg. U.S.-Venezuela relations have changed rapidly in the past weeks. In mid-October, a delegation of the Venezuelan opposition, supported by the United States, and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signed a partial accord which has gained much traction. Indeed, Venezuela has not seen such a consequential bargain between the government and the opposition since the 2003 agreements that resulted in a recall referendum against former president Hugo Chávez in 2004. Perhaps the most important outcome of such accords—besides the welcoming news of the ..read more

Fuente: REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria. Las precarias condiciones políticas en Venezuela se deterioraron de manera abrupta luego de que la oposición alcanzara su clímax en las elecciones parlamentarias de diciembre de 2015.   En aquel entonces, la coalición Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) se convirtió no solo en mayoría electoral absoluta, al obtener más del 56 por ciento de los votos y el 67 por ciento de los escaños, sino que también en una clara opción de cambio político y de retorno de la democracia. Sin embargo, el resultado generó una fuerte reacción por parte del gobierno a ..read more

Source: Barron’s. In the intricate landscape of Venezuela’s electoral crisis, Guatemala serves as a cautionary tale, illuminating the perils that persist beyond the ballot box. Guatemala can offer valuable insights into the pitfalls of relying solely on an electoral solution in Venezuela. Consider the situation in Guatemala, where the newly elected President, Bernardo Arévalo, faces uncertainty even before taking office, with the transfer of power far from guaranteed. It remains to be seen if international pressure will prevent still-resistant state powers, like the Prosecutor’s office—sa ..read more

Image Source: Reception and Integration of Migrants and Refugees in Cities Across the Americas (OAS) According to United Nations data, 26 percent of the world’s migrant population lives in the Americas, which means that migrants make up 7 percent of the region’s total population as of 2020. Of this total, 58.7 million are in North America, and 14.8 million live in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to UNHCR’s 2022 Global Trends in Forced Displacement Report, by the end of 2022, at least 108.4 million people had been forcibly displaced globally. In the Americas, 9.2 million people moved ..read more

Protestors demonstrate against Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro’s government at Plaza Bolivar in Lima, Peru. Source: Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters. Anthony Eterno is a 20-year career diplomat who served as Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Venezuela from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as Economic Counselor and Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas before he was expelled from Venezuela by Nicolás Maduro. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Government, the Biden-Harris Administration, the former Tr ..read more

El pasado 19 de marzo de 2023, el presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, inició inesperadamente una campaña anticorrupción sin precedentes contra la deteriorada industria petrolera venezolana. Dicha acción provocó la renuncia del Ministro de Petróleo Tareck El Aissami, una figura chavista de alto calibre sancionada por Estados Unidos. También impulsó decenas de arrestos ejecutados por la poco conocida “Policía Nacional Contra la Corrupción”—incluyendo el arresto de Joselit Ramírez (jefe de la agencia reguladora de criptos de Venezuela), así como también el de un diputado chavista, un alcalde ..read more