An influential group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators will file sweeping legislation on Wednesday to address the crisis in Venezuela, including sanctioning individuals responsible for
undermining democracy or involved in corruption, Senate aides said.
The bill would provide $10 million in humanitarian aid to the struggling country, require the State Department to coordinate a regional effort to ease the
It also calls on President Donald Trump to take all necessary steps to prevent Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, from gaining control of any U.S. energy infrastructure.
Rosneft has been gaining ground in Venezuela as the country scrambles for cash. The Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, last year used 49.9 percent of its shares in its U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, as collateral for loan financing by Rosneft.
In total, Rosneft has lent PDVSA between $4 billion and $5 billion.
The measure comes as the international community has struggled to respond to deep economic crisis and street protests in the South American OPEC nation.
Some 29 people have been killed, more than 400 injured and hundreds more arrested since demonstrations against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government began in April amid severe shortages of food and medicine, deep recession and hyper-inflation.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s opposition blocked streets in the capital, Caracas, to denounce Maduro’s decision to create a “constituent assembly,” which critics said was a veiled attempt to cling to power by avoiding elections.
Senate aides said the bill sought to react to the crisis by working with countries across the Americas and international organizations, rather than
U.S. officials have long been reluctant to be too vocal about Venezuela, whose leaders accuse Washington of being the true force behind opposition to the country’s leftist government.
