Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren, the ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seeking an explanation for the Trump Administration’s decision to remove sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez, acting President of Venezuela. The letter argues that, despite recent U.S. sanctions relief for Venezuela, the administration has not explained how lifting sanctions on Rodríguez advances U.S. national security. The senators questioned why sanctions were lifted despite what they described as Rodríguez’s continued involvement in repression, including her hierarchical control over the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, SEBIN, which the 2020 United Nations Fact Finding Mission found had committed crimes against humanity. They also cited the March 2026 United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which concluded that the main structures responsible for repression remain intact and that there are no meaningful indicators of structural reform. The letter urges the administration to keep individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses, corruption, or other antidemocratic acts out of the U.S. financial system unless there is concrete and meaningful behavior change, warning that sanctions relief could increase the resources and capacity of those actors.
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs2026-05-20
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs ranking member seeks explanation for lifting sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seeking an explanation for the Trump Administration’s decision to remove sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez, acting President of Venezuela. They question how this move advances U.S. national security given Rodríguez’s alleged role in repression and United Nations findings that Venezuela’s repressive structures remain intact. The senators urge the administration to keep individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses, corruption, or antidemocratic acts out of the U.S. financial system.