US offers Venezuela deal to lift sanctions

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday offered a path for Venezuela’s leftist leadership to remove sanctions in the face of a mounting humanitarian crisis by accepting a transitional government that excludes US ally Juan Guaido.

The tactical shift came after more than a year of faltering Us-led efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro and as fears grow that the coronavirus pandemic will spread rapidly both inside and from poverty-stricken Venezuela.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Guaido as well as Maduro should step aside for a transitional government comprising members of both their parties that will arrange elections in six to 12 months.

If fully implemented, the United States and European Union would lift sanctions, including sweeping US restrictions on Venezuela’s key export of oil, the State Department said.

The IMF and other international lenders would be invited to plan economic relief for Venezuela, from which millions have fled as they face dire shortages of food and other necessities.

The plan also calls for the departure of foreign forces from Venezuela, a reference to the regime’s support from Russia and Cuba.

“We believe this framework protects the interests and equities of all Venezuelan people who desperately seek a resolution to their dire political, economic and humanitarian crisis, and who know Venezuelans can have something better,” Pompeo said, urging all sides to consider it “carefully and seriously.”

Maduro has repeatedly ruled out ceding power and his government quickly rejected the framework, which is similar to a proposal put forward last year by Guaido in failed Norwegianbrokered talks.

“Venezuela is a free, sovereign, independent and democratic nation that does not and shall never accept instructions from any foreign government,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said.

Elliott Abrams, the US pointman on Venezuela, downplayed the reaction as predictable but said Washington hoped to jump start private talks within the regime and the military, which has remained loyal to Maduro.

The United States has not shifted its goals, with Pompeo renewing support for Guaido − a 36-year-old engineer who has been recognized as interim president by some 60 countries since January 2019.

And while the framework says that any Venezuelan can run for president in future elections, Pompeo reiterated that the United States wanted Maduro out.

“We’ve made clear all along that Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela,” Pompeo told reporters.