(Bloomberg) -- Two senior U.S. officials met with members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas to discuss global oil supplies and the country’s ties to Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The weekend visit, which signals a possible major shift in the U.S. approach toward the socialist government, coincides with a Biden administration effort to round up other sources of energy after the wave of financial sanctions placed on Russia crimped supplies. Crude prices soared, extending a wild week-long rally, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. and European allies are discussing the possibility of an outright embargo on Russian oil as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration is considering easing oil sanctions on the Maduro regime in a bid to get more Venezuelan oil back into the global markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. is also seeking to isolate Russia from a key ally in South America, the Journal said. The U.S.-Venezuela talks were first reported by the New York Times.

The delegation was led by National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Juan Gonzalez, and the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela James Story, according to three people familiar with the visit. 

Maduro, speaking on state television Monday night, described the talks as cordial. “We agreed on issues of interest for an agenda moving forward,” he said. 

The White House declined to comment.

Maduro, an authoritarian leader whose inner circle has been under U.S. sanctions for years, has managed to tame hyperinflation and stabilize the economy after a years-long collapse that triggered a humanitarian crisis and prompted some 6 million Venezuelans to flee the country. The economy grew for the first time in seven years and oil output began to rebound in 2021 after Maduro implemented a series of free-market reforms.

Still, at roughly 800,000 barrels a day, crude output is just a fraction of the 3 million barrels that Venezuela used to produce daily for years. It has more proven reserves than any other country in the world.

Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took a dim view of any accommodation with the Maduro government. “If the reports are true that the Biden administration is brokering the purchase of Venezuelan oil, I fear that it risks perpetuating a humanitarian crisis that has destabilized Latin America and the Caribbean for an entire generation,” Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said in a statement on Monday night. “Nicolas Maduro is a cancer to our hemisphere and we should not breathe new life into his reign of torture and murder.”  

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Maduro Announces Resumption Of Talks With

Opposition


By AFP News
03/08/22 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the resumption of talks with the opposition, which were halted five months ago after the extradition of a presidential ally.

In October, Maduro suspended the negotiations in retaliation for the extradition to the United States by Cape Verde of Alex Saab -- a Colombian national accused of acting as a money launderer for the Venezuelan socialist leader.

"The dialogue in Mexico received a tremendous blow as you know, but if we are asking for dialogue for the world we must set an example in the country," Maduro said Monday in an address broadcast on state television.

The government had conditioned its return to the table on Saab's release.


Maduro called for a "more inclusive, more comprehensive, broader dialogue... for the meeting of all sectors, for the peace of Venezuela, for the recovery of Venezuela."

The announcement comes after Maduro's weekend meeting with a US government delegation that included a discussion of energy supplies, as Washington seeks to reduce its imports of Russian oil.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holding the memo of negotiations that his government and the opposition signed in Mexico last year 
Photo: AFP / Federico PARRA

Venezuela's opposition also said it held a "sustained meeting" with the US delegation.

The United States is one of almost 60 countries to have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's acting president, having rejected Maduro's 2018 re-election in a poll widely viewed as fraudulent.

Washington signaled last month it would be willing to review its sanctions policy toward Venezuela if talks between Maduro's government and the opposition moved forward.

On Monday, Maduro also called for peace negotiations following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to avoid a "third world war."


"We are ringing the warning bell... to the whole world," said Maduro, who called for the "humanitarian corridors" in Ukraine to be respected.

"We are gravely concerned about the possibility of a war in Europe and an extension... of this armed confrontation, it seems to fester, a public media campaign of hatred and a set of economic measures aimed at aggravating the conditions and extending the scenario of war," added Maduro.

Last week, Maduro was among the few international figures to assure Russian President Vladimir Putin of his "strong support," as he condemned "destabilizing actions of the United States and NATO."