MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuela’s main opposition coalition on Monday called on the U.S. to cancel the licenses that allow Chevron and other energy companies to operate in the South American country to pressure President Nicolás Maduro to negotiate a transition from power.
The appeal came from an adviser to the campaign of Edmundo González Urrutia, who represented the Unitary Platform coalition in the July 28 election, and his main backer, opposition leader María Corina Machado. González and Machado claim their campaign won the vote by a wide margin, contradicting the decision of national electoral authorities to declare Maduro the winner.
“We want them canceled … this is a lifeline to the regime,” adviser Rafael de la Cruz said in reference to the licenses during a panel discussion hosted by the New York-based Council of the Americas business organization. “We want all the oil companies to go to Venezuela. So, it’s not about the companies. It’s about the situation that is impoverishing the country so badly that practically the whole population wants this regime gone.”
California-based Chevron is the largest company to have received an individual permission from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., better known as PDVSA. The Treasury Department sanctioned PDVSA in 2019 as part of a policy punishing Maduro’s government for corrupt, anti-democratic and criminal activities.
Chevron’s license was issued in 2022 after Maduro and the opposition coalition jumpstarted a negotiation process. In October, the Treasury Department granted Venezuela a broad reprieve from sanctions after Maduro and the opposition agreed to work to improve electoral conditions ahead of the 2024 presidential contest. But as hopes for a democratic opening faded, the Biden administration clawed back the relief.
The White House left open the possibility for companies to apply for licenses exempting them from the restrictions, which could attract additional investment to the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves. European companies have benefited from individual licenses.
De la Cruz said the González-Machado campaign wants “to find common ground” with oil companies. But, he said, their presence in Venezuela at the moment give Maduro the ability to try to “normalize … de facto dictatorship that he is trying to set up in Venezuela.”
“We remain committed to conducting our business in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, both in the U.S. and the countries where we operate,” Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said in a statement.
The White House did not immediately comment on the call by the opposition coalition to cancel the licenses. Chevron’s license renews automatically. It was last renewed Sept. 1 and is valid until March 2025.
Venezuela’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor hours after polls closed on July 28 but unlike previous presidential elections they never released detailed vote tallies to back up their claim, arguing that the National Electoral Council’s website was hacked. To the surprise of supporters and opponents, González and Machado shortly afterward announced not only that their campaign had obtained vote tallies from over two-thirds of the electronic voting machines used in the election but also that they had published them online to show the world that Maduro had lost.
Global condemnation over the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s high court, stacked with ruling party loyalists, to audit the results. The court reaffirmed his victory.
After the disputed election, legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress to prohibit American investments in Venezuela’s oil sector and to impose visa restrictions on current and former Maduro government officials. Resolutions recognizing a González victory were also introduced in the House and Senate.
González, a former diplomat, earlier this month departed for exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the vote tally sheets.
Last week, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions against 16 allies of Maduro, accusing them of obstructing the vote and carrying out human rights abuses. Those targeted included the head of the country’s high court, leaders of state security forces and prosecutors.
Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.
FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro addresses government loyalists gathered at the presidential palace in support of his reelection one month after the presidential vote, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Gas is flared at the Jose Antonio Anzoategui oil complex in Barcelona, Anzoategui State, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
McLaren Racing heads into Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix as Formula 1's hot new darlings, the papaya-drenched team that just may be the ones to finally dethrone Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Red Bull and its Dutch driver have had ironclad grips on both the drivers championship, and, the more lucrative constructors title for best car, since Verstappen won his first title in 2021. Verstappen now has three consecutive titles and leads the driver standings; Red Bull has back-to-back constructors titles but, headed into the weekend, no longer leads the standings.
McLaren took the top spot with Oscar Piastri's win last Sunday. Coupled with Lando Norris' fourth-place finish, McLaren is now the constructors leader for the first time since 2014. McLaren last won the constructors’ championship in 1998.
McLaren starts the weekend in Singapore with a 20-point lead over Red Bull, which had led the carmaker competition since 2022.
“I think we’ve got as good a shot as anyone,” Zak Brown, the chief executive of McLaren, boldly declared Sunday at IndyCar's season-ending race.
He'd watched Piastri win and McLaren move to the top from Nashville, Tennessee, and even with the big-talking American half a world away, McLaren still managed to make tongues wag at the the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
McLaren arrived in Baku and admitted it would prioritize Norris and the driver championship over Piastri for the final eight races of this season. Norris trails Verstappen by 59 points in the standings, and Piastri certainly accepted the team order in stride by winning the race.
“Obviously no racing driver wants to compromise their own race, so of course he doesn’t love it, but he’s a great team player, totally understands, also knows the role could be reversed in the future,” Brown said of Piastri being given the wingman role for the remainder of the season.
“Also, not totally out of the question, it can be reversed later this year. If Lando goes out and has a couple of DNFs, Oscar goes out and wins a couple of races — all of a sudden,” Brown shrugged. “So I think (Piastri) recognizes that what goes around comes around, and it can very much come around his way.”
Norris and Piastri have combined to win two of the last three F1 races for McLaren, while Verstappen hasn't won since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23. While the team has said it wants Norris to dethrone Verstappen, Brown knows it is a longshot unless Norris can start sledgehammering-away large chunks of Verstappen's lead every race.
In Baku last Sunday, Verstappen finished one spot behind Norris in fifth and Norris only gained three points on the champion.
“Lando made some points, but he needs to double the amount of points he got (in Baku) every race to catch him,” Brown said. “I think that’s a tall order, but we’re gonna try.”
Make no mistake, though, McLaren is hyper-focused on the constructors title, which is the one that pays the big money. The payout to the winning team is set by variables each year but is typically worth at least $140 million in prize money.
Red Bull's dominance has been so dramatic that Brown doesn't even consider the team to be the top rivals for best constructor this year.
“I think Ferrari has showed how quick they are, so I actually think Ferrari might even be a bigger threat than Red Bull as we sit here right now because I think Ferrari will be really strong in Singapore,” Brown said.
Red Bull between Verstappen and Sergio Perez won 38 races in 2022 and 2023. Verstappen through 17 races has seven wins this year; Perez is winless.
Brown praised McLaren's rise under team principal Andrea Stella, who was praised as “a wonderful team boss” by Brown.
“Andrea and the leadership team have been able to unlock the potential and the people,” Brown said of his young team's turnaround. McLaren is one of racing's most popular brands globally, and Brown has been clawing the team back toward the top-tier of F1 after a long drought.
It's been a sometimes-bumpy climb since Brown was named CEO in 2018. He is, after all, the American who loves to stir the pot as much as loves talking about his own racing career. Some of Brown's moves have been chaotic, particularly a messy 2022 when he successfully snatched Piastri and thought he had IndyCar champion Alex Palou locked down, too.
Palou — after a mediator said he couldn't join McLaren until 2024 — changed his mind last year and decided to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar. He didn't want to move to McLaren's less-competitive IndyCar team with the hope either Norris or Piastri's seat opened in F1.
Palou in Nashville won his third IndyCar title, and is headed to another mediator late this year in McLaren's $30 million breach of contract suit against the Spaniard.
The driver signing carousel became comical even among diehard McLaren fans, and that was before this year. The guy Brown hired last minute to take Palou's saved seat broke his wrist a month before the IndyCar opener and the team used three different drivers in that car this year.
David Malukas, who was injured in the offseason bicycle crash, was not one of them as McLaren had a contractual clause to fire him once he missed four consecutive races. The saga of that seat hurt the team, which didn't give Pato O'Ward a consistent car to fight for the championship, and Brown has again overhauled the driver lineup and O'Ward will have two new teammates next year.
It's taken him a long time to get McLaren back in F1, and Brown is pleased with the pace because where the team is headed into Singapore is a far cry from its disastrous and uncompetitive 2023 season.
Brown wants the IndyCar team at the top now, too.
“I want to get the IndyCar car team being where the Formula 1 team is,” Brown said. “I think we’re still a young team. We’re continuing to hire, continuing to make changes in the offseason... I kind of feel like the IndyCar team is on the same trajectory of the Formula 1 team, but the Formula 1 team is just ahead at the moment.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia, right, and McLaren chief engineer Tom Stallardcelebrate after he won the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
From the left, second-placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco, McLaren's chief engineer Tom Stallard, first-placed McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia, and third-placed Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain stand at the podium after the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
