US lifts sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez

The U.S. on Wednes­day lift­ed sanc­tions on Venezuela’s act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez, ac­cord­ing to an Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol en­try on the Trea­sury De­part­ment web­site.

The new­ly an­nounced sanc­tions re­lief rep­re­sents a strong sig­nal that the U.S. rec­og­nizes Ro­dríguez as a le­git­i­mate au­thor­i­ty in Venezuela. Wash­ing­ton has al­ready for­mal­ly rec­og­nized her as the coun­try’s head of state in le­gal and diplo­mat­ic set­tings.

Venezuela’s gov­ern­ment did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment.

The lift­ed sanc­tions come as the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has been en­gag­ing with Venezuela’s in­ter­im gov­ern­ment since the U.S. mil­i­tary cap­tured Ro­driguez’s pre­de­ces­sor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife on Jan. 3 in Venezuela’s cap­i­tal, Cara­cas.

The pair were tak­en to New York to face drug traf­fick­ing charges and both have plead­ed not guilty.

Maduro legal­ly is still Venezuela’s pres­i­dent. In the hours af­ter the Jan. 3 op­er­a­tion, the coun­try’s rul­ing par­ty-loy­al high court de­clared his ab­sence “tem­po­rary,” ef­fec­tive­ly elim­i­nat­ing the need for a speedy elec­tion and keep­ing the pro­tec­tions the of­fice grants him un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law. The court or­dered Ro­dríguez to take of­fice for up to 90 days with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of ex­tend­ing it to six months if ap­proved by the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly, which is al­so con­trolled by the rul­ing par­ty and presided over by her broth­er. The 90-day pe­ri­od ends Fri­day.

WASH­ING­TON (AP)