Warren, Shaheen Ask Rubio and Bessent to Explain Sanctions Relief for Venezuela Regime Head Delcy Rodríguez

Warren, Shaheen Ask Rubio and Bessent to Explain Sanctions Relief for Venezuela Regime Head Delcy Rodríguez

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent demanding an explanation for the Trump Administration's decision to remove sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez, acting President of Venezuela and a key actor in Nicolas Maduro's repressive regime.

"In the wake of a series of recent U.S. sanctions relief for Venezuela, the Administration has an obligation to explain how such relief advances U.S. national security," wrote the Senators. "Despite no significant changes to the political leadership that carried out repression against the Venezuelan people, the Administration has yet to explain the grounds for lifting sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez."

The Senators pressed the Trump Administration on why it lifted sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez despite her continued involvement in the repression of the Venezuelan people.

"Rodríguez also exercised hierarchical control over the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Venezuela's feared intelligence service that was found by the 2020 UN Fact Finding Mission to have committed crimes against humanity," continued the Senators. "Yet now sanctions have been lifted on Ms. Rodríguez without any indication that she has taken concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order. Moreover, the March 2026 UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela concluded that the key structures responsible for repression remain intact and that there are no meaningful indicators of structural reform sufficient to prevent ongoing abuses."

Finally, the Senators called on the Administration to remain committed to holding human rights abusers accountable and warned of the dangers if that does not happen.

"Critically, individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses, corruption or other antidemocratic acts should remain locked out of our financial system absent concrete and meaningful behavior change," concluded the Senators. "Absent that, there remains a significant risk that sanctions relief will needlessly increase the resources and capacity of the very actors responsible for Venezuela's political, economic, and humanitarian collapse."

Full text of the letter to Secretaries Rubio and Bessent is available HERE.

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