Washington – Senior US officials are in Venezuela this weekend to meet with the government of Nicolás Maduro, whose authoritarian government in the oil-producing country has meant no formal diplomatic relations between the two countries since 2019. .
The visit is another example of an ongoing geopolitical change around the world The Russian invasion of Ukraine as the United States and European countries look for different sources of energy from Russia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters.
Several U.S. officials have confirmed that the trip is happening on CBS News. The White House and the State Department have rejected formal comments.
The news of the trip was first reported by The New York Times. The report prompted Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committee and a vocal critic of the Maduro regime, to criticize the trip.
“Joe Biden uses #Russia as an excuse to make the deal they’ve always wanted to make anyway with the #MaduroRegime,” Rubio said. he tweeted Sunday morning. “Instead of producing more American oil, it wants to replace the oil we buy from a killer dictator with oil from another killer dictator.”
Rubio’s active criticism of the Maduro regime and the Cuban government over the years has led to occasional death threats against the senator, who is known to travel with security details from the Capitol police.
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Caracas in 2019 after accusing the Maduro government of electoral fraud. The Trump administration has been more active in overthrowing Maduro and has officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s legal leader. Since then, Maduro has moved closer to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But with U.S. lawmakers and Ukrainian officials calling on the Western world to cut off Russian oil exports as a way to squeeze Putin’s government out of his invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. is actively seeking alternative energy sources. . In recent weeks, U.S. officials have visited the Gulf states to see how to organize oil exports to European countries to make up for Russia’s loss of supply if Putin chooses to cut off his country’s oil continent.
Any diplomatic compromise with Venezuela could also become a domestic political concern in this year’s congressional and gubernatorial contests in Florida, a state with a growing Venezuelan-American population where the GOP’s sustained attacks on the alleged embracing the Socialism of the Democratic Party, a position that Democrats contend with anger. – has helped bring Latin voters together in small races.
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