Earlier, a group of senior US officials flew to Venezuela on Saturday 5th March for a meeting with the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
This was aimed at discussing the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as the Biden administration weighs a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.
This trip was the highest level US visit to the socialist state in a number row years. It comes as the United States is seeking to isolate Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Venezuela the Kremlin’s most important ally in South America used to be a significant supplier of crude to the US before exports were hobbled by domestic mismanagement and crippling sanctions from Washington.
The US delegation included Rogers Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs; and Jimmy Story, the US ambassador to Venezuela.
However, news from Venezuela indicate that Maduro’s government was unwilling to increase the oil production citing the unfair sanctions the US had put on its oil as well as not wanting to exhaust its oil resources so fast.
