President Nicolas Maduro has rejected recent US media reports about Caracas and Washington allegedly striking a deal to ease American sanctions against Venezuela.
“Those who are putting out these false leaks and setting up a whole apparatus of lies through national and international media and platforms are stabbing in the back of the negotiations, conversations and agreements that have already been signed. We have respected the whole process with ethics and honor,” Maduro told a state-run Venezuelan news agency.
The comments followed a report in a US newspaper that said the Biden administration and the Venezuelan government had reached an agreement. The deal stated that Washington would reduce sanctions on the oil industry in Caracas. Additionally, the South American nation “would allow a competitive, internationally monitored presidential election next year.”
The newspaper cited unnamed sources saying that the sanctions relaxation will be announced after “Maduro’s government and Venezuela’s US-backed opposition sign an agreement to include commitments [by Caracas] to allow a freer vote in 2024.”
In 2019, the US will impose comprehensive sanctions on Caracas, specifically targeting the country's oil and financial industries and freezing its reserves amid the country's political crisis.
Maduro has repeatedly criticized anti-Venezuelan US sanctions as a form of electoral interference, stressing that his country "wants elections free of sanctions, blockades, aggression, [and] economic warfare."