You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

U.S. Reinstates Venezuela Sanctions After Top Court Upholds Election Ban on Opposition Leader

HeadlineJan 30, 2024

The United States has reinstated economic sanctions on Venezuela following a decision by the Venezuelan Supreme Court to uphold a ban of leading opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado from running. Elections are scheduled for later this year. The government of President Nicolás Maduro accuses Machado of supporting the harsh U.S. sanctions that have tanked the Venezuelan economy and of backing a U.S.-imposed, unelected interim opposition government. Machado, who won a primary election held by the opposition last October, spoke yesterday.

María Corina Machado: “I received the command of almost 3 million Venezuelans who exercised popular sovereignty on October 22nd, the opposition primary election day. I represent that popular sovereignty. They cannot have elections without me, nor the millions of Venezuelans who voted on that day.”

The White House has given Maduro’s government until April to allow Machado on the ballot. Last October, the U.S. eased some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry under the condition Maduro allowed opposition candidates to participate in the election. Those sanctions could also be rolled back if the ban on Machado is kept in place.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top