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(Bloomberg) -- An adviser for President Donald Trump met with President Nicolas Maduro in a bid to get Venezuela to accept deportation flights carrying gang members and to secure the release of American prisoners.
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Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions, will push for the swift release of American prisoners during his visit but his number one goal is to ensure that repatriation flights carrying Tren de Aragua gang members “who have broken our nation’s laws will land in Venezuela,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
The trip sets up a potential clash with Maduro, whose government has refused to accept deportation flights from the US for about a year. But he may also use the visit as an opportunity to push for easing US sanctions that have crippled his economy, including the oil sector.
The two met at the presidential palace in Caracas on Friday afternoon, according to Venezuelan state media, which added Maduro sought to revise proposals for the relationship between the two countries “in an consensual, no imposed” manner.
Maduro will seek to use his encounter with Grenell to restart talks with the US “from zero,” state media said. The most recent attempt to reach a compromise between the US and Venezuela failed after the Biden administration refused to lift all sanctions as agreed, Maduro has said. Biden officials have said Maduro stole the nation’s most recent election.
A possible enticement Grenell has to offer Maduro is the extension of a US license allowing Chevron Corp. to operate, the only US oil producer left in Venezuela, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. As Maduro begins his third term, the oil industry is the main driver keeping Venezuela’s economy afloat.
But that could face resistance from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said earlier this month that the US should reconsider Chevron’s sanctions waiver, saying it provides “billions of dollars of money into the regime’s coffers.”
Venezuelan bonds jumped across the curve, with sovereign notes gaining more than half a cent on Friday. Notes maturing in 2027 advanced 0.9 cents to trade above 19 cents on the dollar, the highest levels since late July, according to indicative pricing data compiled by Bloomberg.
Sanctions, Bounty