US Venezuela sanctions strategy will face pressures

Significance

US President Joe Biden’s administration is under mounting international and domestic pressure to reverse the decision by the outgoing Trump administration to suspend Venezuela’s access to diesel through crude swaps with US oil companies. The move has accelerated Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis as it confronts a second wave of COVID-19 linked to the highly infectious Brazilian strain.

Impacts

• Domestic leaders such as Henrique Capriles, hitherto sidelined by Washington, may prove the best possibility for political breakthrough.
• A continued suspension of crude-for-diesel swaps will drive a further economic collapse.
• Failure to control the COVID-19 outbreak will exacerbate the economic and social crisis.