How Wall Street Won a Battle Over Venezuelan Sanction

After the U.S. dropped a broad array of sanctions against Venezuela in October, it warned that it could reimpose all of them, except one. The White House admitted that its ban on buying Venezuelan bonds was a failure that had potentially benefited enemies of the U.S.  Behind the scenes, a group of powerful Wall Street investors had been feeding Washington a stream of evidence that showed Venezuelan bonds were being traded by investors with ties to Russia. They said Moscow was hoping to gain influence in the U.S.’s backyard. The Biden administration said dropping the debt-trading ban “would have the positive effect of displacing nefarious players in this market.” It was the first time the U.S. publicly acknowledged that banning U.S. investors from buying debt of a sanctioned country could backfire. By Kejal Vyas and Alexander Saeedy. Full Text -> WSJ

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