The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will reinstate oil sanctions on Venezuela in response to President Nicolàs Maduro’s failure to hold free and fair elections that were scheduled for July.
“We no longer believe Venezuela can achieve competitive elections,” a senior U.S administration official said Wednesday in a call with reporters.
The move comes at a tenuous time for the U.S. economy and border issues.
Although most economic indicators have turned positive in recent months, interest rates and inflation remain high, and the American public isn’t feeling financially stable. A jump in gas prices now, which the loss of Venezuelan oil could trigger, would add to that instability.
Sanctions are also most likely to hurt people at the bottom of the economic ladder, which could push more Venezuelans to seek opportunities elsewhere. Venezuelans already account for one of the largest nationalities trekking to the U.S. southern border.
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The administration conceded that banning Venezuelan oil will probably add to the flow of migrants.
“This administration is also very committed to working cooperatively with our partners throughout the hemisphere on migration management to make sure that it’s more effective, that it’s humane and that the need for people or desire for people to cross their borders without documentation can be vastly reduced,” a top administration…
