The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions against 21 senior officials of the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, for their role in “electoral fraud” in and for the subsequent repression of popular protests and against the opposition, as announced this Wednesday. the Treasury Department, the State Department and the White House.
“The United States has taken steps to increase pressure against Maduro and his representatives responsible for the electoral fraud that occurred on July 28 and after, and for the brutal repression that we have seen in recent months,” noted a senior government official who He spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. Among those sanctioned are senior officials of the Venezuelan intelligence and counterintelligence services, as well as representatives of the Chavista Government. “It is not just about holding Nicolás Maduro accountable,” the senior official added. “Those who act illegally to support their regime, based on repressive tactics, will also find themselves in the crosshairs of these sanctions.”
Among the Chavista government officials subject to US punishment are, according to the Treasury, Freddy Alfred Nazaret Nanez Contreras, Minister of Communication and former president of Venezuelan national television; Aníbal Eduardo Coronado Millán, Minister of the Presidential Office, or William Alfredo Castillo Bolle, Vice Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies at the Ministry of Economy. Also included are the director of Sebin, the National Intelligence Service, Alexis José Rodríguez Cabello, and the head of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), Javier José Marcana Tabata.
Their names join those of nearly 180 regime officials and a hundred Venezuelan entities already sanctioned by the United States. Washington had announced sanctions in September against 16 other Maduro allies, whom it had accused of obstruction of the vote and violation of human rights.
“The repressive actions of Maduro and his representatives, following the Venezuelan presidential elections, represent a desperate attempt to silence the voices of its citizens,” said Acting Undersecretary of the Treasury for Counterterrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith. “The United States continues to shine a spotlight on those who use violence and intimidation to undermine democratic governance and the legitimate exercise of free expression.”
The announcement comes when President Joe Biden’s Administration has barely 54 days left in power before handing over to President-elect Donald Trump, and attempts to increase pressure on the Maduro regime, although it is unclear what effect they will have. the new sanctions. Washington already announced last week, through the State Department, that the opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, whom it declared the winner of the elections on August 1,
González Urrutia is in exile in Spain after the persecution he suffered from Chavismo after declaring himself the winner of the elections and denouncing the fraud with which Maduro proclaimed himself the winner of the elections to remain in power. The former diplomat, recognized as the electoral winner by the United States, the European Union (without taking the step of declaring him president-elect) and Latin American countries, has assured that he will take office on January 10, when the presidential investiture is scheduled in Venezuela. . He has not revealed how he plans to do so. In the conversation with journalists this Wednesday, the aforementioned senior American official and others present limited themselves to specifying: “We have not received a request for assistance” to help the opponent’s return. They also assure that Washington did not intervene in his departure from the country.
