The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on 16 Venezuelan officials aligned with embattled President Nicolas Maduro for what the Biden administration claims is their role in obstructing a free and fair election in the country.
The sanctions come more than a month after Venezuela’s presidential election and days after opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez fled the country. The US has called Gonzalez the winning candidate in the election.
“His departure from Venezuela is the direct result of the anti-democratic measures that Nicolás Maduro has unleashed on the Venezuelan people, including against González Urrutia and other opposition leaders, since the election,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Sunday.
The new sanctions “include leaders of the Maduro-aligned National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) who impeded a transparent electoral process and the release of accurate election results, as well as the military, intelligence, and government officials responsible for intensifying repression through intimidation, indiscriminate detentions, and censorship,” a press release from the Treasury Department said. Those officials were appointed by Maduro, who was sanctioned in 2017.
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