US Vice President Mike Pence Monday called Venezuela's May 20 presidential election "a fraud and a sham," indicating the Trump administration may be preparing to use the elections as a trigger for new oil sanctions to pressure the Maduro regime.
"There will be no real election in Venezuela on May 20, and the world knows it," Pence said at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington.
"It will be a fake election, with a fake outcome," he said. Venezuelan President Nicolas "Maduro and his acolytes have already ensured that their reign of corruption, crime, narco-trafficking, and terror will continue."
Pence urged other OAS member countries to help the US increase pressure on the Maduro regime by cutting off "Venezuela's corrupt leaders from laundering money through your financial systems" and by enacting visa restrictions to block their travel.
Pence said the US has already sanctioned more than 50 current and former senior Venezuelan officials and cut off the so-called "petro" digital currency from the US banking system.
"President Trump has made it clear: The United States will not idly stand by as Venezuela crumbles," Pence said.
Platts Analytics said in a recent note that a Maduro win "would remove almost any prospect for the economic reforms required to reverse production declines, and could create even more pressure on PDVSA by triggering US oil sector sanctions."
Venezuelan oil production sank to 1.41 million b/d in April, down 80,000 b/d from March and a plunge of 540,000 b/d from a year earlier.
Output could fall by another 200,000 b/d by December, an oil ministry source told S&P Global Platts last week on condition of anonymity.
The US has already imposed sanctions that hamper Venezuela's ability to refinance debt and fund new projects. Further measures could include bans on US exports of oil and diluent to Venezuela or restrictions on international sales of Venezuelan crude.
