US eases sanctions on state-run Venezuelan banks

US eases sanctions on state-run Venezuelan banks25 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleVanessa BuschschlüterLatin America online editorPhoto by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty ImagesVenezuela's central bank has been under sanctions for yearsThe US has eased sanctions imposed on Venezuela's central bank in the latest sign of improving relations between the Trump administration and the interim Venezuelan government led by Delcy Rodríguez.The move comes just over three months after US military forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a raid in the capital, Caracas, and took him to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges. The US treasury department issued a licence authorising commercial links with the Venezuelan state-run central bank and a number of other major state-run Venezuelan financial institutions.It means that they will be able to legally use US dollars and re-enter the global financial market. The sanctions, which had been in place since 2019, had made it very hard for the affected banks to process and move money in the international financial system.It could also pave the way for the revenue generated by the sale of Venezuelan oil to the US to reach Venezuela. The change was announced by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in a statement on Tuesday.Its director, Bradley T Smith, signed two licences which loosen the sanctions on the Central Bank of Venezuela, Banco de Venezuela, Banco Digital de los Trabajadores and Banco del Tesoro. However, the licences constitute a temporary easing of sanctions, not a complete lifting.Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro's vice-president and who has been serving as interim president since his ouster, has been lobbying for the complete lifting of all US sanctions.At a meeting in Caracas, Rodríguez told US Assistant Secretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit and the US Chargé d'Affaires in Venezuela, Laura Dogu, that "a licence does not provide legal certainty o...