The new politics of the Venezuelan opposition in Washington

Fernando Blasi, the new representative of Venezuela’s opposition in the U.S., has urged the Biden administration to ease crippling oil sanctions on the Maduro government or risk Venezuela becoming another authoritarian regime like Cuba, with Washington blamed for economic hardships. Blasi’s comments to The Associated Press differed from the opposition’s past strategy of a “maximum pressure campaign” to force Maduro out of power. The opposition has now replaced this with a more horizontal leadership of mostly exiled politicians. The Biden administration is willing to provide sanctions relief but has mostly left the sanctions in place.

Blasi urges the United States government to quickly ease the Venezuela sanctions to help alleviate the country’s economic suffering. He says the concessions would provide much-needed relief to Venezuelans suffering from high inflation and shortages. The Biden administration has shown interest in providing targeted, time-limited sanctions relief, adding that they will focus on the humanitarian needs and positive democratic outcomes of the country. Nevertheless, Blasi warns that time is running out, and the government needs to make good on its commitment.

The new representative of Venezuela’s opposition owes a lot of his newfound prominence to his association with the New Era party, which is centered around his hometown, Maracaibo/ Zulia, and it is allied with Manuel Rosales, the actual governor of Zulia state. He aims at improve relations with Democrats and secure bipartisan support for the opposition. He wants to avoid past mistakes, where the opposition rallied behind one political party, which sidelined the views of the other. Blasi thinks that the Trump administration’s support of the Venezuelan’s fight for freedom led the opposition to back Republican politicians from Florida. Therefore, Blasi wants to ensure that both the Democrats and Republicans support the cause without party affiliations pitting against the will of the nation.

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