Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado commended President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector by revoking oil export licenses.
Machado made her comments during an interview with Donald Trump Jr where she discussed Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s repressive regime.
President Trump cancelled former President Joe Biden’s Venezuelan oil export licenses, effectively reimposing sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector that had been levied during Trump’s first term.
Trump cited concerns regarding immigration enforcement and Dictator Maduro’s failure to permit free and fair elections as justifying the revocations.
“This is a huge step, and it sends a clear, firm message that Maduro is in huge trouble, and President Trump is with the Venezuelan people, with security, with freedom, with prosperity and peace for the whole region,” said Machado.
President Biden had granted the oil export licenses in the ‘Barbados Agreement’ in exchange for assurances from Maduro he would host free and fair elections.
Despite promises of allowing free and fair elections, the Venezuelan regime barred opposition leader Machado from participating in the same despite winning a landslide primary elections victory.
However, Machado invested her political capital into former Venezuelan Ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez, who subsequently won the presidential elections.
Subsequently, Gonzalez was forced to seek political asylum in Spain after the Maduro regime rejected the election results and threatened to arrest him.
Instead of Biden’s conciliatory approach, Trump’s cabinet and close allies, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have lobbied for a hardline strategy to Venezuela with the ultimate goal of a democratic transition rather than negotiating with Maduro to help the US economy.
“I send my gratitude to President Trump,” continued Machado. “This is the correct thing to do, its the right thing to do, the right moment to do it, and I am sure that this will have consequences in the very short term and I am very sure that the Venezuelan people feel right now secured that we are not alone.”
