Powerful Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill last week began voicing support for a U.S. ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports as the next step to punish Putin over the invasion.
The U.S. delegation was led by Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council's senior director for the Western Hemisphere, according to two individuals briefed on the visit on the condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. policy. He was accompanied by Ambassador James Story, the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas when the Trump administration broke off relations with Maduro in 2019 and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate president.
One alternative is to let Chevron, the last American oil company in Venezuela, boost production and possibly resume oil exports to Gulf Coast refineries tailor made to process the country's tar-like crude, the official said prior to the weekend's shuttle diplomacy. Under U.S. sanctions, Chevron is banned from doing all but basic upkeep on wells it operates in connection with PDVSA, the state run oil giant.
"It's a crime what they're doing to the Russian people, an economic war," Maduro said at an event where he railed against the decision by the U.S. and its allies to kick Russia's banks out of the SWIFT payment system and impose a flight ban on its airlines."It's craziness what they're doing."