The US has lifted a number of sanctions against Venezuela to allow “regular activities” in port areas

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a permit on Tuesday exempts some necessary transactions from the sanctions imposed on Venezuela for ordinary operations of ports Y airports.

The Treasury’s announcement qualifies the scope of sanctions imposed on Venezuela in 2018 and 2019 to authorize companies under US jurisdiction. “ordinary and necessary operations for the use of ports and airports in Venezuela”.

Likewise, the Treasury Office for the Control of Foreign Assets (OFAC) authorizes the National Institute of Aquatic Spaces (INEA) perform operations with the same purpose to enable gate operation.

OFAC clarifies that this license does not exempt any of the Venezuelan officials subject to them from sanctions and does not permit import and export activities.

The US government imposed on Donald Trump during the presidency new sanctions against Nicolás Maduro’s regime for violations of human rights and undermining of democracy.

The United States blacklisted the Venezuelan state airline for sanctions in 2020 Conviasa, while many international airlines have stopped operating in Venezuela due to instability and economic problems.

The decision of the Biden government

It was announced after Venezuela’s National Institute of Aquatic Spaces (INEA) was sanctioned two weeks ago.

On January 19 Washington has blacklisted INEA along with several other maritime entities that, he said, had continued to transport Venezuelan crude oil despite sanctions against state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) applied in January 2019 as part of a pressure campaign to remove Nicolás Maduro from power.

The Treasury, which is enforcing the sanctions, said at the time that an INEA vessel, the Russian-flagged Maksim Gorky, transported Venezuelan crude oil and thus “facilitated continued evasion of sanctions and related activities for PDVSA and Nicolás Maduro’s illegal regime”.

This Tuesday, the Treasury has amended a license and this change allows any transaction with the INEA that is necessary for the use of ports and airports.

Many international shipping companies have been cautious in recent years docking in Venezuelan ports over concerns about possible punishment from Washington, an industry source said Reuters.

INEA became the registered owner of the Maksim Gorky in May 2020, formerly known as Ayacucho, owned by a joint venture between PDVSA and PetroChina that was liquidated as a result of the sanctions.

The Maksim Gorky transported 2 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude oil to Asia between September and October 2019, according to an internal PDVSA document seen by Reuters and Refinitiv Eikon.

(With information from EFE and Reuters)

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