New US sanctions on Maduro officials

The United States announced this Wednesday sanctions against 21 officials of the security apparatus and members of Nicolás Maduro’s cabinet for following his orders to repress society in order to fraudulently declare himself the winner of the elections.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department sanctions, among others, the heads of the intelligence service, Alexis José Rodríguez Cabello, and the Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), Javier José Marcano Tábata.

Also notable are the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez, and Daniella Desiree Cabello, daughter of the Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello.

“They have supported and carried out Maduro’s orders to repress civil society in his efforts to fraudulently declare himself the winner of Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” the Treasury said in a statement.

In this way he ignores “the will of the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans who elected Edmundo González Urrutia as their next president,” he adds.

The security forces “have arbitrarily arrested supporters of the democratic opposition en masse” and have violently repressed the protests, Washington denounces on the eve of four months before the elections.

“The repressive actions” are “a desperate attempt to silence the voices of its citizens,” denounced the acting Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith, cited in the note.

Additionally, the State Department has imposed visa restrictions on individuals aligned with Maduro.

With these measures to date, almost 2,000 people are affected by visa restrictions.

“It is not simply about holding Nicolás Maduro responsible” but rather the officials “who act illegally to maintain this regime based on repressive tactics,” declared a government official who has requested anonymity.

Washington still does not touch the oil licenses, despite the fact that the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado insistently demands it.

Venezuela’s oil industry has been sanctioned since 2019 But Washington grants individual licenses to operate in Venezuela to several companies, such as the American Chevron.

“This is something we are continually reviewing as we seek to achieve our foreign policy objectives in Venezuela,” the official said.

“Just because we haven’t taken any action so far doesn’t mean we won’t take one in the future,” another official, who also requested anonymity, told reporters.

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