The United States government lifted sanctions on Wednesday against Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Rodríguez from its sanctions list, where she had been placed in September 2018 during Donald Trump's first term. This measure is the final step in the thawing of relations between Washington and Caracas, following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro, who is facing a drug trafficking trial in New York. By being removed from the list, Rodríguez is no longer subject to Treasury restrictions that prevented any U.S. entity or individual from transacting with her, and it also paves the way for unfreezing any assets she may have in the North American country. On Monday, the U.S. officially resumed operations at its embassy in Caracas, after the Trump administration and the Venezuelan government officially re-established diplomatic ties between the two countries, which had been severed in 2019. Rodríguez, whom the U.S. recognized as president of Venezuela in early March, had been placed on the sanctions list as part of the Trump administration's then 'maximum pressure' strategy to force Maduro out of office. At the time, OFAC accused her of 'helping to maintain and solidify' Maduro's 'authoritarianism'.
