Canada added more Venezuelan officials to its sanctions list to protest the Opec country's 20 May presidential election that Ottawa and many countries consider illegitimate.
The EU is considering more sanctions as well, as is Washington. But the US administration says it is holding off on direct oil sector sanctions out of concern that Washington would be blamed for Venezuela's economic collapse.
Canada's action today targets Cilia Flores, the powerful wife of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and 13 other officials. "Today's announcement is evidence of our commitment to defending democracy and human rights around the world and our rejection of Venezuela's fraudulent presidential elections," Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said.
The European Council earlier this week also condemned the 20 May ballot. "We also started working on the expansion of our reversible targeted measures, with a view to adopting them in the coming weeks," EU foreign commissioner Federica Mogherini said on 28 May.
Venezuela's election authority declared Maduro the winner of the elections, giving him another six-year term in office. Like Canada and the EU, the US has refused to recognize the election outcome and declared Maduro's rule to be illegitimate.
But US lawmakers and government officials continue to interact with the Maduro government. The White House thanked Maduro for ordering the release of US citizen Joshua Holt, held in jail in Caracas since 2016 on what the US considered trumped-up charges. The release followed a 25 May meeting between Maduro and US Senate foreign relations committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tennessee). Maduro just days earlier expelled two senior US diplomats from Caracas, and the US reciprocated in kind.
Holt's release — greeted by US president Donald Trump in an Oval Office ceremony on 26 May — followed month-long negotiations between Maduro's government, senior US congressional staff and State Department officials. The talks followed high-level intercessions by the members of the US Congress on behalf of Holt, a Mormon missionary.
The US conducted those negotiations at the same time as it began to impose sanctions on Venezuela and state-owned oil company PdV. US intercessions on behalf of six former executives of PdV-owned US refiner Citgo, who have been languishing in a Caracas jail since last November, have been less successful and less prominent. Five of the executives are US citizens.
Venezuela last month also arrested two employees of Chevron, both Venezuelan citizens.
The high-level outreach and expressions of gratitude to Maduro do not change the US policy, the White House said. "The US will continue to use all available tools and options to pressure the Maduro regime to abide by democratic norms."
Venezuala's crude production fell to 1.47mn b/d this month, down by 24pc on the year, according to Argus estimates. The collapse in oil output follows years of mismanagement and the departure of qualified specialists. Debt-related liens levied by US firm ConocoPhillips against PdV's Caribbean assets may be accelerating the trend.
The administration since August 2017 imposed targeted sanctions that have tightened financial restrictions on Venezuela without directly compromising its ability to export oil, including to the US.
"Our options (for sanctions) are limitless," White House National Security Council western hemisphere director Juan Cruz said. But the administration is concerned about the potential implications of oil sector sanctions, Cruz said.
"One of the things we look for is what kind of effects (oil sector sanctions) have on the people. Of course, it is the regime that starves them, but we do not want to contribute to that," Cruz said.
The US administration will continue to impose sanctions on individuals and cajole Venezuela's neighbors to match the financial sanctions that Washington imposed. "We also will try ways to get food to that country despite the regime's resistance," Cruz said, a reference to the humanitarian catastrophe that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee to neighboring countries.
