By Vivian Sequera
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro criticized on Thursday US licenses that prevent companies doing business with sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned companies from paying his government in cash.
Last year, Washington authorized US and European companies to resume purchasing Venezuelan crude on the condition that no funds be paid to Venezuela. Last week, the United States authorized Trinidad and Tobago to import gas from a Venezuelan offshore field and prohibited cash from changing hands.
The permits were part of US President Joe Biden’s move to encourage political talks between Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition with the primary goal of ensuring fair presidential elections.
“They tell a country that it has permission to negotiate with Venezuela, but it cannot pay in dollars or in any kind of cash. You have to pay with food or products,” Maduro said in a broadcast. “This is colonialism.”
Maduro has criticized the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which issues the licenses, saying it seeks to dictate how state and private companies do business with Venezuela.
“It is a joke for sovereign countries. I call on the countries and sovereign governments of the Americas and the Caribbean to denounce this colonial model. We do not accept it, we will go our own way, ”he said.
Maduro did not give details about any upcoming action.
After the license in Trinidad last week, Venezuela has not said publicly if it will negotiate with the Caribbean country.
(Reporting by Marianna Párraga)
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