Starlink in Venezuela: the barrier is no longer OFAC, but Venezuela’s own paperwork
Conatel and SpaceX reviewed the framework to formalize Starlink in Venezuela and the regulator asked it to homologate its equipment. The piece usually missing in these cases — the U.S. authorization for an American company — already exists: OFAC maintains general licenses for telecommunications and the internet (GL 24A and 25) that Starlink can rely on. What remains is Venezuelan execution: homologation, spectrum concession and title.
On July 27 and 28, Conatel held a working meeting with representatives of SpaceX and Starlink to review the technical, legal and economic aspects of regularizing satellite internet in Venezuela. The regulator urged the company to begin homologating its equipment — a prerequisite for the administrative title — and SpaceX expressed its willingness to adapt its legal and institutional structure to Venezuelan rules.
The headline is about connectivity, but the decisive half of the file is in Washington: because SpaceX is an American company, it needs OFAC coverage to operate while sanctions remain in force. And here is the twist almost no coverage mentions: that coverage already exists. The consequence inverts the question — it is not whether a U.S. company can operate in Venezuela, but when the Venezuelan State finishes its part of the process.
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