Last Saturday, December 16, 2022, the United States Senate approved the Bolívar Act, a project that prohibits the federal agencies of the North American country granting contracts from the United States Executive to companies that do business with the Nicolás Maduro administration.
The “Bill for the Prohibition of Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime of Venezuela” represents, according to Republican Senator Rick Scott -promoting the legislation-, a “big step” for “weaken” the Maduro government, which “is starving its own citizens” and “imprisoning its political enemies.”
“There is no reason the US Government should work with companies that also work with such a disgusting dictator. I am incredibly proud that the Senate voted to hold Nicolás Maduro accountable for his abuses, by passing unanimously my Bolívar Law,” he said, as quoted in a press release issued by his team.
But yes, it allows the “Secretary of State to remove the restriction when it is in the national interest of the United States”…
Venezuela rejects that bill
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry rejected a bill that seeks to maintain the pressure measures imposed by Washington, in addition to offending the people and Simón Bolívar.
The Government of Venezuela strongly condemned the approval by the Congress of the United States (USA) of a bill that, both in its name and in its content, constitutes a violation of economic freedoms and a serious offense to the Venezuelan people.
Through a statement, the Foreign Ministry denounced that said bill violates the integrity of the sovereign people of Venezuela and of the US companies themselves, “by placing them at risk of being penalized, arbitrarily, unfairly and illegally, when exercising their right to free trade through contracts with the Bolivarian Government”.
He asserted that this instrument, which he classified as disastrous, intends to make irreversible the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the White House on the South American nation.
The Foreign Ministry explained that said bill was conceived from the extremist sectors of politics in the US and assured that it is contrary to international law.
He stated that this fact confirms “that these same sectors have no interest in seeing a development process in Venezuela, an improvement in the quality of life of our population, certainly not guaranteeing free and fair elections, by promoting more obstacles and measures hostile against the country.
He stressed that these ultra-conservative and coup-mongering sectors persist in their cruelty against Caracas and “relapse in their attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government and blow up any possible route to dialogue and constructive relations between the two countries.”
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry accused these sectors of offending “the Venezuelan people, its history and its Liberator (Simón Bolívar), whose republican values and commitment to the principles of freedom and peace are far above those of a handful of legislators ignorant of his glory.”
He added that the promoters of this bill “will only be remembered by history due to their complicity with the aggression against free and sovereign countries.”
Finally, he ratified that “in the face of the Monroist threat and his war-builder heirs, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will continue to cultivate and defend the legacy of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, carving out its own path of political and social stability, economic recovery and peace diplomacy, for a world free of hegemonism, colonialism and imperialism”.
