US Mulling Possible Sanctions Response After Venezuela Elections

The U.S. is considering “consequences,” including possibly sanctions actions, against Venezuela after the country’s Nicolas Maduro-led regime appeared to alter the results of the country’s presidential elections, senior administration officials said this week.

The officials said the U.S. and its allies have “serious concerns about the lack of substantive data to back up the assertion” that Maduro won the election, which was formally certified July 29 by the country’s National Electoral Council, an electoral body loyal to Maduro, The Associated Press reported.

Speaking during a July 29 call with reporters, a U.S. administration official said government “sources” showed that the announced results released were “are at odds with how people actually voted.”

The official declined to “get into the details of how we would respond” to the election results. Asked specifically whether the U.S. is considering new sanctions, one official said the administration is still waiting to see if the Venezuelan regime can provide “transparent” data backing up its election claim.

But the person also said the U.S. plans to work with Group of 7 countries and others “to discuss a collective way forward that continues to both encourage the kinds of changes and reforms that the Venezuelan people have called for, but also exact consequences.”

“We are concerned at this juncture, with regard to yesterday's election, that respect for democratic norms has not been followed,” the official said, adding that the U.S. is continuing to “assess our sanctions policy” toward Venezuela.

An official also declined to directly say whether the administration plans to revoke specific, individual licenses the Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued to Chevron (see 2211280042) and other oil and gas companies for certain activities in Venezuela. Oil company Maurel & Prom announced in May that it received a specific license from OFAC that authorized certain activities involving Venezuela’s state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela (see 2405070008).

“We are obviously in the process of evaluating these election results, and we have to see where this comes out,” the official said. “I can't get into hypotheticals with respect to what our overall licensing policy will be.”

But the official also said: “It is not currently under consideration that we would retroactively alter licenses that have previously been given.”

The Biden administration in October lifted certain sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, gas and gold sectors after the country's government and opposition formally agreed to work together on conditions for fair presidential elections (see 2310180070). The government later reversed some of that sanctions relief (see 2401300014), and in April said it planned to let the Treasury Department’s general license for certain transactions with Venezuela’s state-owned energy company expire (see 2404170070).

A U.S. official this week defended past U.S. sanctions relief for Venezuela, saying that country's allowing its citizens to vote for an opposition candidate is a development that “only came about as a result of the calibrations that we've done with our sanctions policy over the last year.”

“Now that we are faced with potentially a new scenario,” the person said, “we are going to take that into account as we map forward where we may head with respect to sanctions towards Venezuela.”

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration's sanctions policy in recent months, saying the sanctions relief it offered to Venezuela earlier this year wouldn’t work to restore democracy (see 2404050006 and 2401290048).

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and three other lawmakers said July 26 that Congress would be monitoring the elections “closely” and renewed calls for the Biden administration to apply “maximum pressure” on the Maduro regime.

“We reaffirm our commitment to robust action at all levels of government in support of the Venezuelan people, including the enactment of legislation to impose new sanctions if the will of Venezuelan voters is undermined by the regime,” McCaul and Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla.; Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said in a joint statement.