A group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden administration on Thursday urging them to lift sanctions on Venezuela, a country run by one of the world’s most repressive regimes, NBC News first reported.

Democratic Party specifically written He urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to do more, while applauding the Biden administration for releasing American prisoners of war from Venezuela. Lawmakers have also called on the State Department to restore diplomatic relations with Caracas.

A group of House Democrats is calling on the Biden administration to ease sanctions on Venezuela, hire more aides and restore diplomatic ties in an effort to alleviate the economic crisis in Venezuela. https://t.co/9ZMtTbB1Ug

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 22, 2023

“Given the enormous cost of the Venezuelan people and the pervasive crisis of the hemisphere, we believe it is imperative that the administration responds to this opportunity by empowering the Venezuelan people as they seek to rebuild their country and their future. “There is,” the letter said. According to NBC. “We share your view that human rights should be at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, and therefore we recognize the indiscriminate and reversed sanctions that the secondary and sectoral sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have had on the Venezuelan people. We have been deeply troubled by the widespread coverage of the effective impact.”

The lead authors of the letter are Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern and California Rep. Barbara Lee. Meeks and Castro both serve on the House Foreign Relations Committee, with Meeks a ranking member.

The letter calls for follow-up on billions of dollars of funds frozen by the United States and Europe to be used for social assistance to Venezuelan citizens. He is also asking the administration what steps need to be taken to reopen the embassies and consulates of both countries.

In 2019, Venezuela sent all U.S. diplomatic officials to the government after the administration of former President Donald Trump recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido, rather than dictator Nicolás Maduro, as the country’s legitimate leader. ordered to leave the country. Since then, commercial flights from the United States to Venezuela have been suspended, and the Trump administration has continued its “maximum pressure” campaign claimed by many Venezuelans who have defected to the United States. (Related: Biden extracts oil from communist dictatorship after rejecting clean fuel from US allies)

The Biden administration has said it is ready to lift some sanctions if President Maduro allows free and fair elections in the country. Most sanctions are still in place, despite more dialogue between the two countries compared to the Trump administration.

A total of seven million Venezuelans fled the country over the past decade to escape Maduro’s authoritarian rule, and many ended up in the United States.