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The administration of President Joe Biden, both formally and via anonymous reports, announced twin policies to ease the financial misfortunes of the communist government of Cuba and its proxy socialist government in Venezuela, leaving leaders in both communities dismayed and confused.
The State Department announced a series of measures on Tuesday that would create a cash windfall for the Castro regime: the return of an exemption to the barely existent embargo known as “group people-to-people” travel – effectively legalizing tourism in groups to the island if disguised as “educational” – and the lifting of caps on sending remittances to the island set in place under former President Donald Trump. Tourism and remittances are key sources of revenue for the communist regime, whose military maintains a stranglehold on everything from money wiring enterprises to luxury hotels.
Later that day, multiple reports quoting anonymous Biden administration sources revealed that the White House would soon allow the oil corporation Chevron to resume business talks with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan regime-run oil company, and that it would lift sanctions on one person: socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s nephew, a former PDVSA official.
Both announcements preceded widely derided talks with both regimes. In March, Biden sent a delegation to Caracas to discuss, reports claimed, potentially resuming the purchase of Venezuelan oil to offset sanctions on Russia. Since Venezuela’s regime is heavily indebted to Russia, any payment for Venezuelan oil would likely go directly to Moscow, anyway. A month later, Biden’s team held a meeting with the Castro regime, reportedly to discuss refugees fleeing the island in droves after the violent repression of suspected political dissidents — including the shooting of suspected supporters of democracy at point-blank range in their own homes — and heading to the southern border. After President Barack Obama ended the “wet foot/dry foot” policy that allowed Cubans who made the 90-mile sea voyage to Florida to stay in the country legally, Cubans began using visa-free travel to countries like Guyana and Nicaragua to take the routes human traffickers control out of South America to Texas.
Activists, community leaders, and analysts from both countries told Breitbart News this week they expected no benefits to either Cubans or Venezuelans from the new pro-regime policies. --->READ MORE HERE
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The Biden administration on Tuesday took a step toward easing sanctions against Venezuela’s socialist government — just one day after lifting financial, travel and migration rules for Cuba.
The US will allow Chevron to discuss future work with state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA and lift sanctions against Carlos Malpica-Flores, a former PDVSA executive and relative of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
Biden administration officials said on a White House-organized call that the changes are relatively minor and were made at the request of Venezuelan opposition leaders who comprise a shadow government that is in talks with Maduro.
“The Treasury, with the guidance from the State Department, issued a narrow license authorizing Chevron to negotiate the terms of the potential future activities in Venezuela,” an official said. “It does not allow entry into any agreement with PDVSA or any other activity involving PDVSA or Venezuela’s oil sector. So fundamentally, what they’re doing is just allowed to talk.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
Do Biden policy moves on Cuba, Venezuela doom Democrats’ chances in Florida?
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