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A group of politicians and lobbyists with longstanding ties to Venezuela are working to force a substantial change in White House policy toward the Nicolás Maduro regime, he revealed.ABC. According to the information, at the center of these efforts is the so-called Boston Group.
“This is an old informal meeting of legislators from both countries in which both Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were present, which today has become a kind of commission that makes proposals for understanding between the regime, the opposition and the US power, and that has managed to mediate for the release in recent years of some Americans who had been arbitrarily imprisoned by Chavismo in Venezuela, “explained the Spanish newspaper.
Change of US government
The arrival of Joe Biden to power has led to a change in official attitudes in Washington towards Venezuela.
With Donald Trump, the generalized position was of no negotiation with the regime and the requirement for negotiation and elections was Maduro’s departure from power.
“The old Democratic mediators, who hoped to maintain influence and power under Hillary Clinton, were temporarily sidelined. Now, these Democrats not only have control of the White House, which commands diplomacy, but also of the two houses of the Capitol, “he said. ABC.
Therefore, the voices that now shape US policy toward Venezuela have been members of that Boston Group or, failing that, have worked with it at some point.
John Kerry
The report recalls that John Kerry, who was the second secretary of state under Obama, is now a special envoy for climate change, and was a member of the Boston Group and participated in a meeting in which Maduro himself was in Massachusetts two decades ago .
He adds that with Kerry, Ambassador Thomas Shannon served in US diplomacy, who defended and facilitated meetings with Chavismo with the support of the former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
In the same way, Shannon is today a very influential lobbyist in Washington, who has represented, among others, the government of Alberto Fernández in Argentina, who in turn has offered the White House his services of mediation and dialogue with Chavismo .
Boston Group
The current coordinator of the Boston Group is Pedro Díaz Blum. It is about a former Venezuelan legislator who in his day coordinated the Venezuelan part of that same formation.
«The name of Blum and the Boston Group comes up in numerous conversations in Washington today when talking about possible solutions to the Venezuelan crisis, after Trump’s heavy-handed policy did not yield the expected results, including the failed pronouncement April 30, 2019 », says the report.
Blum went to Washington after the presidential election that Biden won in November, and as reported by Emili J. Blasco in ABCBefore, he was seen with Maduro in Venezuela.
In the American capital, Blum met Gregory Meeks, another longtime member of the Boston Group who as a Democratic representative chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Since then, as he has learned ABC From sources that Blum met at the time, he proposed that the priority of the new US government and its recently achieved control of the two houses of the Capitol was to solve the crisis in the oil sector, “he adds.
Proposal for the oil sector
ABC He recalled that just a month ago, the Boston Group and Blum circulated a document with a concrete proposal for Biden on the Venezuelan oil sector.
It is a four-page letter whose existence was reported by the Argus Media portal and which the Spanish newspaper was able to access.
The letter proposes to reactivate oil sales and channel the proceeds to an escrow account to pay for humanitarian programs that are supervised by the United Nations. The Boston Group estimates that this could generate about $ 50 billion a month from a predetermined level of oil distributed by PDVSA’s joint ventures.
That proposal reached Meeks on Capitol Hill, the State Department, the White House and the Venezuelan regime.
“What underlies this proposal, and a further objective, is to normalize again the communication channels between the Chavista regime and Washington, after the years in which Trump recognized only the opposition led by Juan Guaidó as the legitimate representative of Venezuelans” , indicates.
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