Maduro glimpses a lifeline as US eases sanctions

It was little more than a year ago that US officials were publicly rubbishing the prospect of engagement with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who they described as a “dictator”.

- Tom Phillips, Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger

“His repression, corruption and mismanagement have generated one of the direst humanitarian crises this hemisphere has seen,” the state department spokesperson, Ned Price, declared in February 2021.

Yet 2022 appears to have heralded a new dawn for Washington-Caracas ties, as geopolitical shifts caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and political deadlock in the economically devastated South American country prompt a major policy rethink from Joe Biden’s administration – and offer Venezuela’s authoritarian leader a once improbable political lifeline.

Last week, the US announced a gentle easing of the economic sanctions it has spent years using to push for political change in Venezuela – including against a nephew of its first lady.

“Venezuela hopes that these decisions by the United States of America will pave the way to the total lifting of the illegal sanctions which affect our entire people,” the country’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, tweeted in English as the news emerged.