Biden is under pressure from Republicans to severely sanction Venezuela

From the Axios news site, after the announcement of the results of the presidential election in Venezuela, the Republican representatives of Congress have pressured the Biden administration to impose severe sanctions on the Caracas government for allegedly “subverting” the results. apply the election.

Some of these Republicans had previously criticized the agreement of the Biden government with Maduro to reduce sanctions on the oil and gas sector in exchange for holding free and fair elections. However, the US government also reinstated the sanctions in April after Maria Corina Machado, the main opposition candidate, was banned from the competition.

Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Salazar and Carlos Gimenez, the Republican representatives of the state of Florida, in a letter to Biden and Kamla Harris, his deputy, requested the imposition of extensive and severe sanctions against Venezuela. They also called for targeted sanctions against the officials who subverted the democratic system of Venezuela.

According to the Axios report, despite the poll results showing that Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate of Maduro’s opposition, is leading by a margin of 2:1, the National Electoral Council of Venezuela declared Maduro the winner.

Reports indicate that in addition to the congressmen, Senator Rick Scott also sent a letter to Biden yesterday, asking him to contact Machado and González Urrutia while imposing immediate sanctions against Maduro and his close circle, and to elect him as the president-elect. recognize and protect both opposing figures against Maduro.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Biden administration told reporters at a press conference yesterday, Monday, that “we are evaluating the results of the election and we have to see what the result will be.” Stating that one cannot enter into hypotheses about the policy of sanctions, this official added: Now that we are facing a new potential scenario, we are considering the issue of moving forward with regard to sanctions against Venezuela.

The people of Venezuela went to the polls on Sunday (August 7) ​​to elect the future president of their country. After holding these elections, the Election Commission of Venezuela announced on Monday that Nicolás Maduro won with 51.2% of the votes and was elected for the third term as president.