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<font size="1"><a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15114">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15114</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Biden Administration Rules Out Maduro Talks, Pledges Support for Guaido</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Rachael Boothroyd</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>Merseyside, UK, February 6, 2021 (<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>) – Newly sworn-in US President Joe Biden has discarded dialogue with the Nicolas Maduro government.</p>
<p>State Department Spokesperson Ned Price ruled out any “direct contact” with the Venezuelan president in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ZYlvEBveY">press briefing</a> Wednesday, adding that the administration considers him “a dictator.”</p>
<p>“The overriding goal of the Biden-Harris administration is to support
a peaceful, democratic transition in Venezuela through free and fair
presidential and parliamentary elections,” he said.</p>
<p>For its part, the Venezuelan government has called for <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15046">improved relations</a> with its US counterpart based on mutual respect.</p>
<p>Outlining the White House’s foreign policy approach to Venezuela for
the first time, Price reiterated Washington’s support for opposition
leader Juan Guaido.</p>
<p>“The United States continues to recognise the 2015 National Assembly
as the last remaining democratic institution in Venezuela, and
consistent with that the person chosen by the National Assembly… to be
interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido,” he stated.</p>
<p>When pressed about Guaido’s fading international support and whether
the administration believed him to be the best person to lead the
country’s opposition, Price sidestepped questions and stated that the US
would work alongside “partners and allies” such as the Organization of
American States and the Lima Group.</p>
<p>As a relatively unknown lawmaker, Guaido made a bid to unseat Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14244">declaring</a>
himself “interim president” in January 2019. Though he initially
secured the backing of the United States and its allies in Europe and
the Americas, his support has since significantly waned both at home and
abroad after failing to make good on his promise to remove the
Venezuelan president.</p>
<p>Guaido lost his standing as <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14755">congressional leader</a> after an opposition sector broke ranks in late 2019. Parliamentary elections in December 2020 then <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15070">delivered</a> an overwhelming majority for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela after being <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14960">boycotted</a> by the country’s hard line opposition.</p>
<p>The self-proclaimed “interim president” instead vowed to <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15089">extend</a>
the outgoing National Assembly’s term. However, his standing has become
increasingly questioned amidst opposition ranks, with twice
presidential candidate and opposition veteran Henrique Capriles Radonski
<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15076">urging</a> the Biden administration to drop its support for a “finished” Guaido.</p>
<p>The State Department’s reiterated support came after the European Union’s 27 member states <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-eu-idUSKBN29U1A3">reversed their position</a>
with regards to Guaido earlier in January this year, confirming that
the organisation would no longer recognise him as interim head of state.</p>
<p>Though Price’s comments dispel suggestions that Biden looks set to
depart from his predecessor's policy toward Venezuela, it is still
unclear whether his administration will modify the wide-reaching <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/sanctions">sanctions</a> on the country’s economy enacted by former President Donald Trump, especially targeting the <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15095">oil industry</a>.</p>
<p>At the beginning of February, the US Treasury <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/venezuela_gl30a.pdf">issued a license modification</a>
allowing certain “necessary” transactions involving Venezuela’s
National Institute of Aquatic Spaces (INEA) in the country’s ports and
airports - a move which <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Biden-Rolls-Back-Some-Trumps-Sanctions-on-Venezuela-20210203-0004.html">some interpreted</a>
as an early indication that Biden administration would move to relax
his predecessor’s sanctions, despite promises to make them “<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15100">more effective</a>.”</p>
<p>However, Price made no mention of any intention to roll back the
Treasury’s unilateral measures and stipulated that the US would continue
to “target regime officials and cronies involved in corruption and
human rights abuses.”</p>
<p>The sanctions are widely regarded as having devastated the country’s economy, as well as causing at least some<a href="https://cepr.net/report/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela/"> 40,000 deaths</a> between 2017-2018. The Maduro government has filed a <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14790">lawsuit</a> at the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that the US blockade amounts to a “crime against humanity.”</p>
<p>Oil corporations, including US oil giant <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14852">Chevron</a> and India’s Reliance Industries have likewise <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15107">lobbied</a>
Washington to reverse some of the measures, which include an embargo on
Venezuelan oil sales and the blacklisting of any company which does
business with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.</p>
<p><em>Edited and with additional reporting by Ricardo Vaz from Mérida.</em></p>
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