Gold Silver Reports – U.S. Weighs Venezuela Oil Sanctions Before April Vote — The U.S. is leaning toward imposing oil-sector sanctions on Venezuela before the country holds April 22 elections that opposition leaders have vowed to boycott, according to a senior State Department official.
The official, who asked not to be identified discussing private talks, stressed that no decision has been made and the U.S. is still weighing the impact such sanctions would have on ordinary Venezuelans as well as on U.S. refiners that import heavy Venezuelan crude.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration favors a move as soon as feasible, regardless of the election timing, the official said. A move to directly target oil sales would be the most significant blow to President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, which depends almost exclusively on crude sales to sustain a crumbling economy.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is overseeing the debate, still hasn’t decided what form the sanctions will take, but is weighing two main options, according to the official: new restrictions specifically targeting Venezuela’s oil sector; or measures to tighten existing financial sanctions and thereby make it impossible for the autocratic regime to profit from its chief source of income.
The possibility of such sanctions was a focus of Tillerson’s trip to South America and the Caribbean earlier this month. During a stop in Jamaica, Tillerson said the U.S. was studying what it could do to “perhaps soften any impact” of such sanctions, particularly on poorer Caribbean nations.
