On October 18, 2023, the United States welcomed the announcement of a political agreement between Maduro and the Unitary Platform representatives. This move is part of the United States’ longstanding policy of supporting the peaceful restoration of democracy, competitive elections, and respect for the rights and freedoms of the Venezuelan people. In line with this policy and appreciating the concrete steps taken, the U.S. has granted exceptions under its Venezuela sanctions program for certain transactions that would otherwise be prohibited. Should Maduro’s representatives fail to meet their commitments, the U.S. government reserves the right to revoke these authorizations, and all other sanctions against Venezuela, including those imposed on the Venezuelan government, will remain in effect.
On October 18, the U.S. government temporarily lifted certain sanctions measures on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector activities, the gold sector of the Venezuelan economy, and U.S. persons’ secondary market transactions of certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds and stocks. Specifically, OFAC issued the following licenses:
- General License (GL) 44: Temporarily permits all transactions related to operations in Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and allows normal and necessary financial transactions with certain blocked Venezuelan banks in the oil and gas sector.
- General License (GL) 43: Permits certain transactions involving the Venezuelan state-owned mining company CVG Compania General de Mineria de Venezuela CA (Minerven), as well as guidance that the U.S. government does not intend to impose sanctions on any individual merely for operating in Venezuela’s gold sector.
- General License (GL) 3I and GL 9H: Lifts secondary market trading prohibitions for certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds and for debt or equity issued by Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA) prior to 2017.
The U.S. government suspended these sanctions measures in response to recent concrete steps towards a democratic solution in Venezuela. However, as with all general or specific licenses, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has indicated it is prepared to revoke these authorizations if deemed necessary to support U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.
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