{"id":3678,"date":"2020-03-01T12:36:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T12:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vricmonitor.org\/maximum-pressure-march-against-maduro-regime-in-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T15:03:11","slug":"maximum-pressure-march-against-maduro-regime-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vric.securefreesociety.org\/es\/maximum-pressure-march-against-maduro-regime-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMAXIMUM PRESSURE MARCH\u201d AGAINST MADURO REGIME IN VENEZUELA"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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February marked an important advancement in the United States\u2019 \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d policy on the Maduro regime in Venezuela\u2013 focused on the extra-regional actors propping up the regime. For the first time, the Trump administration sanctioned an important subsidiary of Russia\u2019s state-owned oil giant, Rosneft, for its role in controlling the Venezuelan oil industry. As the pressure mounts, however, the VRIC allies continually find ways to evade sanctions through a maze of companies and increased collaboration. To skirt oil sanctions the Maduro regime transferred its exports to another Rosneft subsidiary, then restructured PDVSA and placed it under the purview of the Venezuelan Vice President for the Economy, Tareck El Aissami.<\/p>

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For its part, Iran is also ramping up its covert operations, as the Venezuelan state- owned airline CONVIASA was sanctioned by the U.S. in early February. A specific CONVIASA flight, known as \u201cAero-Terror,\u201d was recently spotted traveling throughout the region for the first time in many years with Iranian pilots from Mahan Air flying the Venezuelan Airbus 340. Meanwhile, the second suspicious case surfaced of Iranian nationals entering the region with fake Israeli passports, this time in Ecuador, in a similar fashion to a previous case last year in Argentina.<\/p>

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While Maduro continually constructs counter-measures to what has been dubbed \u201cMaximum Pressure March\u201d by Trump administration officials, the United States, Colombia, and Brazil begin to coordinate new methods of pressuring the regime. Brazil recently downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Venezuela by removing its diplomatic corp from the country.<\/p>

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President Bolsonaro visited U.S. Southern Command in Florida to sign several defense agreements bolstering military cooperation with the U.S. after President Duque visited President Trump at the White House in early March. These high-level, impromptu meetings between the three countries suggest a more multilateral and coordinated effort to force Maduro to resign. The VRIC, on the other hand, seems to be strengthening its capacity to upend the region\u2019s stability in the near future.<\/p>

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