With the energy crisis having happened because of the world in Ukraine both the us and Europe have been both banning Russian oil and gas and with the US usual plan to convince the saudis to produce more oil down the drain because they are now siding with the Russian the world has to now turn to an unlikely destination Venezuela. Venezuela has the worlds largest proven oil reserves and was until recently one of the worlds biggest exporters of oil at one producing 3 million barrels a day which is now down because of the reelection of president Maduro in 2018 which was called into question from the US and its Allies who insisted it was rigged; in 2019 the US imposed major sanctions on Venezuelan oil cut diplomatic ties and closed its embassy in Caracas. This lead to Maduro to the support of Cuba china and Russia, following the 2018 presidential election the US recognized the leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly Juan Guaido as acting president and introduced UN Security Council motion calling for new presidential elections which Russia vetoed. With an attempt to hit two birds with one stone senior US officials including the national security director for the western hemisphere Juan Gonzalez and us presidential envoy for hostage affairs were sent to Caracas for talks with the Venezuelan government about potentially lifting some of those sanctions. With oil prices being so high removing sanctions make sense for both sides for the US it will reduce global dependence on Russian oil it would also peel Venezuela away from Russia further isolating Russia while for Venezuela the move could be huge for the president and the nation the have been facing a humanitarian crisis since 2014 there has been an 8000% increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking refuge status worldwide with over 170000 recognized refugees from Venezuela worldwide; in the words of UNHCR, People continue to leave Venezuela to escape violence, insecurity as well as lack of food, medicine and essential services. “With over 7 million Venezuelans now living abroad… this has become one of the largest displacement crisis in the world”. While inflation in Venezuela has gone down from the staggering high of 130000% in 2018 in 2021 it was still 686%, unsurprisingly Maduro isn’t the most popular guy around and any respite would be a positive for him. nonetheless it wouldn’t be politically easy for either Biden or Maduro, Maduro has spent the last few years lambasting the United States and accusing the US of orchestrating plots to undermine Venezuela while the US is essentially swapping out one oil-rich strongman with another. nonetheless, Maduro has already signaled his desire to turn the page in America Venezuela relations confirming the meeting with American diplomats, Maduro has described it as respectful cordial and very diplomatic further stressing that they had agreed to work on an agenda going forward

Works Cited:

Raul Editor, et al. “Which Countries Have the Biggest Crude Oil Reserves?” HowMuch, https://howmuch.net/articles/worlds-biggest-crude-oil-reserves-by-country.

Bertrand, Natasha, and Kevin Liptak. “US to Ease Some Energy Sanctions on Venezuela | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 17 May 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/17/politics/us-sanctions-venezuela-eased/index.html.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Venezuela Situation.” UNHCR, UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/venezuela-emergency.html.

Person. “Venezuela’s Maduro Says Work Agenda Agreed with U.S. Delegation.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 8 Mar. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelas-maduro-says-work-agenda-agreed-with-us-delegation-2022-03-08/.