The Latin American Report # 684

The Treasury Department could lift some sanctions on Venezuela starting Monday to facilitate oil sales, according to information offered just an hour ago by the British news agency Reuters. This regulatory advance connects well with the executive order signed by Trump this same Saturday to protect the revenue that the United States, allegedly, will safeguard on behalf of Venezuela from potential judicial seizure attempts by Venezuelan debt creditors or, in general from entities with unsettled accounts with Chavismo.

Furthermore, there is already talk of even reconnecting Caracas with the International Monetary Fund—there would be close to 5 billion dollars in Venezuela-owned Special Drawing Rights there, currently unavailable of course—and the World Bank, while previous reference had been made to the probable role of the Export-Import Bank. Apparently, the political regime commanded from the Miraflores Palace is the same from the last years, and yet everything is changing very quickly regarding the Trump administration's approach towards it. "We're de-sanctioning the oil that's going to be sold," Scott Bessent told Reuters. "How can we help that get back into Venezuela, to run the government, run the security services and get it to the Venezuelan people?," he added, referring to the ongoing deliberations within the U.S. government.

Thus, for the moment everything is going very well between Chavismo without Maduro and the White House, but pressure is beginning to mount from Florida over the trickle of political prisoner releases, following the big announcement by the head of the National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez, brother of the acting president, about the release of "a significant number" of prisoners last Thursday. "[The] confirmed releases are limited to a small and select group of civilians, political opponents, and some foreigners, including several Spaniards," denounces the Organization of Persecuted Venezuelan Political Exiles from Miami. According to a Venezuelan NGO's count, there would be more than 800 political prisoners distributed across various critical prisons in the country. Could this be an issue where the first strong internal disagreements within the remnant of the Bolivarian leadership are surfacing? For example, among those released are Spanish citizens detained with much fanfare and propaganda last year by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

Nicaragua/Cuba

Managua released at least 20 political opponents this Saturday, in a move that many associate with pressure from Pennsylvania Avenue but which is not unusual within the complex political tradition of Ortega's government, which is completing 19 years in power. While the timing now is not the best, Cuba should evaluate a measure of this type to generate a better political atmosphere. The timing is not favorable now because the ideal would have been to do it much earlier and not now, where the measure would be seen as a clear expression of fear and a sense of urgency.

Regional news brief

• Five men between the ages of 23 and 33 were reported killed in the northern department of La Guajira in Colombia, following an armed attack executed by individuals who arrived in a car shooting indiscriminately. The incident occurred specifically in the Altos de Parrantial neighborhood of the municipality of Maicao, where there is a presence of the Clan del Golfo—the largest criminal organization in Colombia—, the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish), and other armed structures operating outside the law.
  

• In Paraguay, a powerful lightning bolt killed 19 cows from a cattle company in the Colonia Independencia district in the southern department of Guairá. All the dead animals were butchered by the direct owner of the cattle to try to mitigate the "strong economic blow" caused by the meteorological accident.
  

From X

Politics is not math 👇

I will comment again very soon about this disastrous, nightmare-type electoral process in Honduras 👇

This is all for today’s report.