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by Jose Aguiar
CARACAS, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Despite its declared willingness to improve ties with Venezuela, the United States has so far shown no sign of halting its "double agenda" with the South American country, a leading political analyst told Xinhua.
Luis Delgado Arria noted that after U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon visited Caracas in June, some local observers were so optimistic as to say that the visit marked a turning point in the two countries' troubled relations.
However, the atmosphere did not last long as the Obama administration soon started a new round of pressure tactics against Caracas, said Arria, a columnist and author interested in politics.
On June 29, Obama told Venezuela to free "political prisoners" and warned against any attempt to derail a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro.
On July 6, the U.S. Congress decided to extend sanctions against Venezuelan politicians linked to alleged human rights violations.
The law, first proposed in 2014 by Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Mendez, suspends visas of certain Venezuelan government officials and freezes their assets in the United States.
The U.S. attacks on Venezuela come from beyond the executive branch, as the Senate shows similar bias, Arria said.
"The United States says it is in favor of dialogue with Venezuela, yet with these political gestures, it is encouraging historically undemocratic and violent segments of the opposition to do anything to sabotage peace and stability," said Arria.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday issued a travel alert against Venezuela, citing increasing "violent crimes" in the Caribbean nation.
For Arria, all these U.S. policies "are blind and all its institutions are at the service of the foreign policy of the State Department ... which seeks to lead a low-intensity war against the government and the people of Venezuela."
