The Trump administration on Tuesday eased financial sanctions against Venezuela's state banking system, allowing the country's central bank and major financial institutions to legally use U.S. dollars and directly access billions in oil revenue for the first time since Nicolas Maduro's ouster in January.
The move clears a path for Venezuela's economy to reintegrate into the U.S.-controlled global financial system. Central Bank officials can now process oil sales payments directly, unblock development contracts, and access capital that had been frozen by red tape from earlier American sanctions.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued specific licenses to five major Venezuelan banks, including Banco Central de Venezuela, allowing them to transact in dollars and reconnect to international markets.
Acting president Delcy Rodriguez had faced an impossible choice. Without access to U.S. currency, she could either print money and ignite hyperinflation or cap public sector wages. Salary growth had become urgent after workers demanding higher pay protested last month in Caracas. Government workers earn roughly $160 monthly, well below the private sector average of $237. Rodriguez had promised wage increases starting May 1.
One U.S. official described her position bluntly: "Delcy was between a rock and a hard place. So she did the right thing and held the line. And then she got protested for it."
The decision also served a second purpose: propping up the new government the U.S. helped install. A second official stated the action "supports the objective to revitalize the Venezuelan economy by reintegrating Venezuelan citizens into the U.S.-led global financial system."
The sanctions relief continues a pattern of normalization since Maduro's January military ouster. In February and March, the Treasury already authorized U.S. businesses to deal directly with Venezuela's state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela. Last month, OFAC lifted individual sanctions on Rodriguez herself and approved expanded Venezuelan gold sales in U.S. markets. Chevron also finalized an oil production agreement with the country this week.
The irony is sharp: The original sanctions came from Trump's first administration in 2019, designed to strangle Maduro's economy. The regime had survived by turning to cryptocurrency and shadow banking. Now Rodriguez, installed partly through U.S. backing, faced crippling restrictions from that same weaponized financial system.
Rather than a blanket lifting, OFAC granted selective licenses to specific institutions, maintaining targeted control while opening the channels Rodriguez needed to stabilize wages and accelerate oil-sector development.
Author James Rodriguez: "Rodriguez got handed a Venezuela on the brink of starvation and faced the brutal choice between printing money or breaking her wage promise. The U.S. finally cut her loose, but only after she'd already paid the political price."
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