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MEXICO CITY, Nov. 26 (AP) — Venezuela’s government and its opposition agreed Saturday to create a U.N.-administered fund to fund health, food and education programs for the poor, even as the Biden administration eased restrictions on the country. Some oil sanctions in an effort to push through talks the two sides have just restarted.
The agreement signed in Mexico City by President Nicolás Maduro and opposition representatives, including a faction backed by the United States and led by Juan Guaido, marks the resumption of long-stalled talks aimed at finding a way out of the South American country. common path. complex crisis.
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In response, the U.S. government agreed to allow oil giant Chevron to pump Venezuelan oil.
The head of a team of Norwegian diplomats guiding the negotiations announced the broad terms of the deal for the UN-administered social fund.
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Resources held by Venezuela in the international financial system will be transferred to the fund, although neither the talks nor Norwegian mediator Dagny Rand has indicated whether the U.S. or European governments agree to transfer frozen assets to the new mechanism.
“In accordance with UN norms and procedures, (the fund’s) objective is to support the implementation of social protection measures for the Venezuelan people,” Nyland said. “Both parties have identified a set of resources belonging to the Venezuelan state, frozen in the international financial system, which can be used progressively, with the understanding that authorization and approval from foreign institutions and organizations is required”.
A United Nations report released earlier this year estimated humanitarian needs at $795 million to help some 5.2 million Venezuelans through health, education, water and sanitation, food and other programs.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has stepped up economic sanctions on Venezuela and authorized Guaido to control Maduro’s government’s bank accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or any other U.S. insured bank.
Guaidó declared himself Venezuela’s interim president in January 2019, arguing that his capacity as then-president of the country’s National Assembly allowed him to form a transitional government because Maduro had been re-elected in a sham vote in late 2018. The United States, Canada and Colombia recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
European banks also hold frozen assets in Venezuela.
Some 7 million people have left Venezuela amid a complex political and humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of those who remain in the country live on less than $1.90 a day, an international measure of extreme poverty.
In October 2021, after businessman Alex Sabo was extradited from Cape Verde to the United States on money-laundering charges, Maduro’s representatives pulled out of negotiations on the condition that they resume after Sabo’s release. He remains in custody, but his wife, Camila Fabri de Saab, will be part of Maduro’s delegation.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Saturday it was allowing California-based Chevron to resume “limited” energy production in Venezuela after years of sanctions sharply reduced oil and gas profits flowing to Maduro’s government.
Under the new policy, profits from energy sales would be used to pay off debt owed to Chevron, rather than giving profits to Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, commonly known as PDVSA.
Briefing reporters on the U.S. action on condition of anonymity, a senior U.S. administration official said the easing of sanctions had nothing to do with the administration’s efforts to boost global energy production following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a decision that unexpectedly affected global energy prices. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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