The Trump administration is tapping into more than $300 million in frozen Venezuelan government funds in an effort to give new momentum to its elusive goal of ousting President Nicolás Maduro. About $20 million will be used to send pandemic relief supplies to Venezuela via international health organizations, as fear of the novel coronavirus and the rigors of everyday survival diminish already lagging enthusiasm for public activism against Maduro.

Within the next several weeks, 65,000 front-line health workers will begin receiving electronic payments of $100 a month — a sum many times their average pay .

The administration has refused to freely open the coffers to opposition leader Juan Guaidó , whom it recognizes as Venezuela’s legitimate president. But it has set the wheels in motion to provide two years of back pay to federal lawmakers whose salaries Maduro suspended in 2016.

But the latest attempts to tighten the screws on Maduro come as critics charge the administration’s 18-month “maximum pressure” campaign, centered on harsh sanctions, has not only failed to drive the autocrat from power, it has left him free to tighten his grip.

In recent months, the pro-Maduro Supreme Court has used a questionable legal maneuver to strip the heads of Venezuela’s three main opposition parties of their leadership titles and replaced them with more compliant politicians whose fealty was allegedly bought with bribes.

The original opposition leaders have agreed to boycott legislative elections Maduro has called for December, although it remains unclear how many lawmakers will join them. The elections will mark the end of the legal term in office of the current, opposition-controlled National Assembly that Guaidó leads, the position on which his claim as head of state was based.