File image of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. AP
Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday said in an interview that he is ready to work towards improving relations with United States, despite the ongoing sanctions crippling his country.
Maduro broke off relations with Washington in 2019, when the administration of then-president Donald Trump recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s “interim president.”
Maduro’s comments came days after the opposition in the South American nation voted to dissolve Juan Guaido’s “interim government,” which had been acknowledged as Venezuela’s legitimate leader following disputed 2018 elections by numerous nations, including the United States.
“Venezuela is ready, totally ready, to take steps towards a process of normalization of diplomatic, consular and political relations with the current administration of the United States and with administrations to come,” Maduro was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
The United States imposed a series of sanctions against Venezuela, including an oil embargo, in an effort to remove Maduro from office.
Although the administration of current US President Joe Biden maintains a policy of not formally recognizing the Maduro government, last year it sent delegates to Caracas to meet with him and negotiate prisoner exchanges, among other topics.
“We are prepared for dialogue at the highest level, for relations of respect, and I wish a beam of light would come to the United States of America, they would turn the page and leave their extremist policy aside and come to more pragmatic policies with respect to Venezuela,” Maduro said.
Three of the four major parties in Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted on Friday to end the interim government led by Guaido.
The body, elected in 2015, is now largely symbolic as it was replaced by a legislature loyal to Maduro, though it still retains control over some of Venezuela’s assets abroad.
After negotiations restarted in Mexico between the opposition and the Maduro government in late November, Washington responded by granting a six-month license to US energy giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela.
With inputs from agencies
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