The U.S. government harshly sanctioned the officials of the Nicolas Maduro regime.
The United States on Thursday sanctioned 16 officialsgovernment, military, intelligence, supreme court and Venezuela’s electoral authorityFor obstruction of the “election process” and violation of civil rights, the Treasury Department reported.
The sanctions target “key officials involved in the fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory of (President Nicolas’s election) Maduro and his brutal repression of freedom of expression after the elections, while the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans call for change,” said Undersecretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, quoted in a statement.
The members of the sanctioned Supreme Court of Justice include judges:
- Innocent Antonio Figueroa Arizaleta
- Malachi Gil Rodriguez
- Juan Carlos Hidalgo Pandares
- Caryslia Beatriz Rodriguez Rodriguez
- Fanny Beatriz Marquez Cordero.
Since the July 28 election, “Maduro and his representatives have indiscriminately arrested Venezuelans for exercising their political and civil rights and deployed a series of intimidation tactics to silence the opposition,” denounces President Joe Biden’s government.
“These acts, including issuing an arrest warrant against the successful presidential candidate, forced Edmundo González Urrutia to leave Venezuela to seek asylum in Spain,” the statement adds.
Urrutia acted as representative of opposition leader María Corina Machado, after the authorities disqualified her politically, so she was unable to participate in the elections.She has stayed in Venezuela and claims that the opposition has won the elections by a wide margin.
The proclamation of Maduro’s victory for a third six-year term sparked protests that left 27 dead, about 200 injured and more than 2,400 detained, which the Chavista leader calls “terrorists.”
United StatesIt has already imposed numerous sanctions in the past on Venezuelan officials, including Maduro himself, accused of drug trafficking by Washington.
In April, President Joe Biden’s government reimpused some sanctions on the oil and gas sector, after suspending them for several months to reward Maduro for laying the groundwork for the election.
However, it grants individual licenses to operate in Venezuela to several oil companies, such as the American Chevron or the Spanish Repsol.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo