Communist sympathizer Joe Biden has allowed the U.S. Department of the Treasury lift sanctions on the export of gas out of Venezuela. Not only will this help the communist dictator Maduro in Venezuela, but it will also the communist dictators in Cuba. Oh, and we still can’t have the Keystone XL pipeline in this country either.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday lifted sanctions on the export of gas to socialist Venezuela, a boon to the dictatorship in Caracas and its patron government in communist Cuba, which struggles to suppress mounting opposition and calls for the regime’s total abolition.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a general license number 40, permitting “all transactions and activities related to the exportation or reexportation, directly or indirectly, of liquefied petroleum gas to Venezuela” as well as the socialist regime’s state-owned affiliates, specifically rescinding restrictions that then-President Donald Trump imposed via three executive orders in 2018 and 2019. The license remains valid through July 8, 2022.
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), the state-owned company managing the nation’s (and some of the world’s) largest oil reserves, fell under socialist control in 1998, when Hugo Chávez nationalized the entity. With socialist cronies in charge, Venezuela’s oil production began to decline at a rapid rate, falling to levels not seen since 1947 by mid-2020. Despite abundant supply, the mismanagement is so great the nation routinely experiences severe gasoline shortages.
OFAC left intact sanctions on individual Venezuelan government officials, many of whom allegedly maintain ties with drug cartels, human trafficking organizations, or terrorist cells. Television star Diosdado Cabello, the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela PSUV) and Maduro’s second-in-command, has for years been identified as a major figure in the international drug trade, with informants naming him as the leader of the Cartel de los Soles. The group, run out of the Venezuelan military, operates an international cocaine ring.