WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) The new US administration will review unilateral sanctions that were imposed on Venezuela but is in no rush to lift them, a senior administration official told reporters.
"We are going to review the sanctions to make sure that they are effective because the focus of sanctions should be to increase pressure on the regime, eliminate any sort of access to corrupt capital to sustain themselves but also not [a regime] that penalizes and punishes unnecessarily the Venezuelan people and the country," the official said during a briefing on Monday. "But again... there is no rush to lift sanctions."
The official admitted that unilateral sanctions imposed under the Trump administration were ineffective and have not succeeded in achieving an electoral outcome in the country. Nowhere in the world, the official added, have unilateral sanctions actually led to democratic transition in the absence of a multilateral approach among the international community.
