US begins reimposing sanctions on Venezuela after ban on opposition candidate By Reuters

By Matt Spetalnick and Vivian Sequera

WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) -The U.S. on Monday began reinstating sanctions on Venezuela after the South American nation failed to lift a ban on a leading opposition candidate running for president later this year.

The Treasury Department gave until Feb. 13 for the winding down of any transactions between U.S. entities and Venezuelan state-owned gold mining firm Minerven. Business dealings with the miner had been authorized in October as part of an easing of sanctions to facilitate a fair presidential election.

The move came hours after a Biden administration official had said that the Treasury license that broadly restored dealings with Venezuela’s oil industry would be allowed to expire on April 18 if Maria Corina Machado and other opposition figures are not allowed to compete against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in this year’s election.

Venezuela’s Maduro-allied Supreme Court on Friday kept in place a ban barring Machado from registering, upholding prior findings that she had supported U.S. sanctions, been involved in corruption and lost money associated with Venezuela’s foreign assets.

The United States had granted sanctions relief for OPEC member Venezuela in October as part of an electoral deal. But that relief was conditioned on Maduro freeing certain opposition-linked and American prisoners and making progress toward removing bans on a number of opposition figures.

Venezuela in December carried out a prisoner swap that appeared to be a step towards complying with those demands.

However, in recent days the decision by the Supreme Court against Machado, plus new arrests of opposition members, has prompted a U.S. threat to restore sanctions.

“Unless Maduro and his representatives in Venezuela are able to get back on track, specifically with regard to allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s election, we will not be in a position to renew General License 44, which provides relief to Venezuela’s oil and gas sector when it comes up for renewal in April,” the White House official said.

Machado, a 56-year-old industrial engineer who overwhelmingly won an October opposition primary vote, said on Monday she would not move aside in favor of a substitute.

“There is no retreat. We have a mandate and we will complete it,” Machado told a press conference in Caracas.

The ruling was “judicial crime,” she said, adding there will be many obstacles still to overcome but there will be elections this year.

Jorge Rodriguez, a lawmaker who heads Maduro’s team in negotiations with the opposition, said prior to the Treasury decision that if Washington took “any aggressive action,” Venezuela’s response would be “serene, reciprocal and energetic.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby (NYSE:) said the U.S. measures would depend on Maduro and his government. “They’ve got till the spring to honor their commitments,” he told a daily briefing. “They’ve got decisions they have to make before we weigh what decisions we’ll take.”

In the most significant lifting of tough Trump-era sanctions, Washington in October issued a six-month general license authorizing U.S. transactions with Venezuela’s vital oil and gas sectors. The license to Minerven had been granted in the same package.