By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 21 senior Venezuelan high-ranking ministers and security officials linked to President Nicolas Maduro.
The sanctions target officials accused of supporting Maduro’s claim to victory following Venezuela’s July 28 election, which has been widely reported to be fraudulent.
Those sanctioned include Anibal Eduardo Coronado Millan, the minister of Maduro’s Office of the President, Daniella Desiree Cabello Contreras, Maduro’s president of the Venezuelan Export Promotion Agency, and Orlando Ramon Romero Bolivar, the commander of the Maduro-loyal Bolivarian Militia.
The measures freeze the U.S.-based assets of sanctioned individuals and prohibit Americans from conducting business with them. Financial institutions engaging with them risk being sanctioned themselves.
The Treasury said it took action because those sanctioned have “ignored the will of the overwhelming majority of Venezuelan voters who elected Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as their next president.”
Maduro claimed victory in Venezuela’s presidential election, despite evidence that former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who represented the opposition, actually secured a landslide victory. Widespread demonstrations protesting the result erupted afterwards, many of which were repressed by Maduro-aligned forces.
Venezuelan security forces responded to the election with widespread repression, including arbitrary arrests of opposition supporters, violent suppression of protests, and an arrest warrant against Gonzalez Urrutia, forcing him into exile.
“Maduro’s repressive actions are a desperate attempt to silence the voices of citizens,” said Bradley T. Smith, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
“The United States will continue to hold accountable those who use violence and intimidation to undermine democratic governance,” he said.
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