The United States has eased sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela at a moment when the Trump administration is trying to reactivate the country’s oil sector after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.
The Treasury Department issued on Tuesday a general license allowing financial institutions and other agents to do business with the Central Bank of Venezuela, in addition to a small number of other institutions in the country.
The measure allows the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, to carry out transactions with international banks after a seven-year embargo stemming from U.S. sanctions imposed during Trump’s first term.
It is a fundamental step to ease economic bottlenecks in Venezuela that had been delaying payments to local oil companies and harming President Donald Trump’s plan to rapidly raise crude oil production.
The activities allowed under the general license include dollar banking services, payments and correspondent banking accounts.
The license, issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), also lifts sanctions on three state-owned Venezuelan banks: Banco de Venezuela, Banco Digital de los Trabajadores and Banco del Tesoro.
Another general license also allows the negotiation of contracts with the Government of Venezuela, provided the parties obtain OFAC authorization.
The easing of sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela will give “real depth to the foreign exchange market,” said Alejandro Grisanti, director of the Ecoanalítica consultancy, before the announcement.
The U.S. Treasury blocked the Central Bank of Venezuela in 2019, restricting most of its activities “to prevent it from being used as a tool of Maduro’s illegitimate regime,” according to a statement released at the time.
Under Maduro’s leadership, Venezuela resorted to opaque ways of moving resources, including the use of banks in Turkey and Russia, cryptocurrency platforms and other means that opened space for corrupt practices.
Since Maduro’s capture, Washington has taken control of Venezuela’s oil sales and begun taking steps to ease sanctions on the country’s energy sector. Venezuela’s oil exports to ports in the U.S. rose by more than 150% in March compared with December.
The interim Rodríguez government moved quickly to reform key laws and make Venezuela more welcoming to U.S. investment, including from energy and mining companies.
A Bloomberg reported last week that the Trump administration was weighing to suspend sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela.
For years, sanctions against the Central Bank generated uncertainty in the international banking system.
In some cases, they led to the so-called “over-compliance,” when banks block or delay legitimate transactions related to Venezuela for fear of possible penalties.
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