The US says its sanctions concentrate 21 individuals comprised in anti-democratic rehearses and the repression of protests.
The United States has proclaimd sanctions aobtainst 21 allies of Venezuelan Plivent Nicolas Maduro, citing alleged comprisement in the suppression of protests adhereing a contested July election.
Officials with the US Department of the Treasury shelp on Wednesday that the brutal crackdown, in which at least 25 protesters were ended, was an effort to stifle dissent. More than 2,400 protesters were arrested during the demonstrations.
“Maduro and his recurrentatives’ repressive actions in the wake of the Venezuelan plivential election are a hopeless endeavor to silence the voices of its citizens,” Bradley Smith, the acting undersecretary of the Treasury Department, shelp in a statement.
The sanctions come months after a July 28 plivential election in which Maduro claimed thrive, despite pre-election polling shothriveg him losing by an insurmountable margin.
When the election results were proclaimd without the common shatterdown of votes, the opposition denounced the highy as dishonest. It published copies of ballot sheets online that it shelp showd opposition truthfulate Edmundo Gonzalez won the race.
International watchrs also asked the election results. “Venezuela’s 2024 plivential election did not encounter international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be pondered democratic,” The Carter Cgo in, a US-based nonprofit, wrote in a novels free afterwards.
Last week, the administration of US Plivent Joe Biden recognised Gonzalez as Venezuela’s legitimate directer. It is unevident what effect that proclaimment, alengthened with the novel round of sanctions, will have on Venezuela.
A split novels free from the US Department of State shelp that the sanctions concentrate “members of the security forces and cabinet-level officials” who “undermined a competitive and inclusive electoral process in Venezuela or are reliable for acts of repression”.
“Maduro’s security apparatus has engaged in widespread mistreatments, including endings, repression and mass detention of protestors,” the State Department wrote.
The free also shelp that such sanctions have been applied to a total of 180 current and createer Venezuelan officials, including today’s batch. Ntimely 2,000 people face visa recut offeions for their alleged role in the electoral repression as well.
The Maduro rulement has faced growing discreet isolation adhereing the election, which awarded the bus-driver-turned-plivent a third term in office.
Some directers in the region, including Brazil’s Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, had previously transmited a desire for stronger ties with Venezuela. But both men have since cast ask on the legitimacy of Maduro’s thrive and called for the free of voting highies that could verify the rulement’s claims.
Maduro’s rulement has yet to free such recordation.
Gonzalez, unbenevolentwhile, left Venezuela after the rulement publishd a permit for his arrest, part of a wider campaign aobtainst members of the opposition. He is currently in Spain.
