The seven-souled Nicolas Maduro and the Ukrainian

To lift the sanctions? After the Russian energy embargo, the US “discovered” the oil of Maduro’s country. Greece is called upon to exercise political realism.

Festive atmosphere at Miraflores Palace. At the end of May, President Maduro welcomes Portugal’s new ambassador to Venezuela, Joao Pedro de Vasconcelos Fins do Lago, who is coming to present his credentials to the country’s President-elect, and not to the self-appointed Juan Guaidó. Singing national anthems, shaking hands with Maduro and his wife, Congresswoman Celia Flores, and exchanging views on the long, friendly relations between the two countries since the Chávez era, “based on the cooperation and joint work of both peoples,” as stated in the press release. Bilateral relations were not straightforward. They were tested when, in February 2019, Portugal recognized then-opposition leader Guaido as interim president, as did 60 other countries along with the EU. Relations deteriorated in February 2020. Venezuela suspended TAP Air Portugal flights to and from Caracas for 90 days accusing the company of allowing Guaido’s uncle to transport explosives. On the same plane was Guaido, coming from a 3-week international tour to garner international support for his campaign to overthrow the elected socialist president. The sequel doesn’t matter. It is important that this dark interlude in bilateral relations did not influence Lisbon to keep its representation at the ambassadorial level in the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.

And in the background the Venezuelan oil

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and the resulting embargo on Russian oil seem to make Chavista Maduro less “disgusting” in the eyes of the West. The “ice” was broken on March 5, shortly after the Russian invasion, with the visit of an American delegation to Caracas. It was at the highest level for years. On Monday, June 27, a second, in principle secret, US delegation followed without any information on the substance. But Maduro himself confirmed a day later that Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Parliament, had received a “significant delegation” from the Biden administration, following the March 5 contacts, to advance the bilateral agenda. Since 2010, the US has diplomatic representation at the level of the chargé d’affaires. But the opposition United Platform also assured a little later that it met with the Americans to coordinate efforts to restore the government-opposition dialogue taking place in Mexico. After the Trump administration, the Biden administration has not recognized President Maduro, and Guaidó, a self-proclaimed transitional president, is keeping him at a discreet distance, neither of whom he invited to the Summit of the Americas in early May in Los Angeles. But energy insecurity has visibly “softened” US foreign policy, which under the guise of efforts at national reconciliation in Caracas, is eyeing Venezuelan mineral wealth.

The facts speak for themselves. In mid-May, two US government officials told CNN that the US appeared willing to ease sanctions against Venezuela, which would mean that Chevron, the only US oil company that remains present in the country of the “hated” Maduro, could in theory to negotiate a new oil production license with state-owned PDVSA. Whether this is done depends on whether and to what extent sanctions are eased. However, the Vice President of Venezuela, Delsy Rodríguez, seized the opportunity to request the immediate and complete lifting of the sanctions. Such a perspective is directly related to the gradual closing of the Russian energy tap. In early June, the US State Department gave the green light to energy oil giants ENI, (Italy) and Respol, (Spain), to resume oil supplies from Venezuela on the condition that it be transported for sale in Europe and no other continent . The American argument, apart from the obvious reason of the energy independence of the old continent from Russia and to a lesser extent from China, was the resumption of the political dialogue with the opposition.

And while the EMI and Rapsol were wrapped in silence, the lascivious Maduro, who is every night for the most relevant and unrelated reasons live on state television, confirmed that there is movement in the field of sanctions, speaking of “small but important steps” by the US. A few days ago, at the tumultuous Summit of the 7 industrialized countries in Elmau, Bavaria, few registered that Emmanuel Macron’s France called for a diversification of the energy mix and talks with oil-producing countries, such as Iran and Venezuela. “There is a knot that needs to be untied … there is Venezuelan oil that needs to be returned to the market,” said a source at the French presidency who spoke on condition of anonymity.

And Greece?

With this “knot” around the neck since 2015, which has brought the people to their knees and exacerbated corruption, mismanagement and criminality, Venezuela is walking. Like the sanctions, the non-recognition of Maduro as president in the 2018 elections did nothing to weaken him. Recently he even made one of the rare tours abroad. He visited Turkey, Algeria, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait and Azerbaijan. A “cocktail” of countries that the Euro-Atlantic area desperately needs to survive the winter energetically. Maduro has signed a series of bilateral agreements in many economic sectors, but mostly he has asked for help to modernize the embargo’s dilapidated mining and oil exploitation infrastructure. Pre-election Greece would not have heard of Maduro’s visit to his friend, Erdogan, if the latter had not made the well-known statements about Mitsotakis’ presence in the American Congress. But Venezuela is falling away and Greek representation in Caracas has been reduced to the bare minimum. With the transfer of the last Greek ambassador in October 2019 to another post, the position becomes a widow. Since then, an administrative official has been acting as an ambassador. A downgrade that definitely overshadows bilateral relations at a time when Greece is looking for friends and allies. One such country was Venezuela. The priorities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not seem to include filling the position at the level of ambassador or even chargé d’affaires. Countries such as Germany and France preferred not to move their already accredited ambassadors to Maduro in order to have representation at the embassy level.

What is the future of Greek relations with Venezuela? The first act of the newly elected Greek government in 2019 was the recognition of Juan Guaido as interim president. It seems that the American pressures were great. And the government adviser on Latin American issues at the time, who is now running for a seat in Parliament in the upcoming parliamentary elections, also has his own share of responsibility. In the meantime, Russia invaded Ukraine. The EU, which has meanwhile demoted Guado to opposition leader, is scrambling to meet its energy needs, Europeans are groaning under the rising cost of living and Americans have suddenly “discovered” Venezuela’s black gold. The geopolitical facts have changed drastically. Old enmities suddenly softened. Athens continues to not want a “photographic snapshot” of a Greek ambassador-ranked diplomat shaking hands with Maduro. But Maduro is always there, in power, and it seems, for quite some time. He is in the Miraflores palace and shakes hands with other Western ambassadors, such as the Portuguese. We said, he’s got the bone of a bat.

Irini Anastasopoulou

Source: Deutsche Welle