The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 21 security and Cabinet-level officials aligned with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro for what the Biden administration says are anti-democratic actions and violation of human rights perpetrated since the country’s July 28 election.
The group includes 15 leaders of the Bolivarian national guard, national police, national intelligence service members and the general directorate of military counterintelligence, who according to a high-level representative of the administration have targeted innocent civilians for repression and reprisals.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States is “acting again today to hold Nicolas Maduro and his representatives accountable for undermining the electoral process in Venezuela and repressing the Venezuelan people.”
Blinken said Maduro and his representatives continue to falsely claim victory in the election while his security apparatus “has engaged in widespread abuses, including killings, repression and mass detention of protesters.”
International election observers have cast doubt on official results from the July 28 election. The U.S. and Venezuelan opposition parties maintain that Maduro lost the election to opposition candidate Edmundo González, who fled to Spain after Venezuelan authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.
The U.S. says it has now sanctioned 180 current or former Venezuelan officials for “repressing and intimidating the democratic opposition in a desperate and illegitimate attempt to cling to power.”
The State Department said it also has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on nearly 2,000 people for their role in undermining the electoral process or in acts of repression in Venezuela.
The Biden administration, according to a senior official who spoke to reporters on Wednesday, has given “Nicholas Maduro and his representatives every opportunity to do the right thing.”
Instead, the official said, “Maduro and [his] representatives decided to use violent repression and defeat power at all costs. This is not something the United States will stand for, and nor will other countries in the region.”
The U.S. has not yet imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil production or energy sector – something that has shown in the past to bring the government to the negotiating table.
“As for the possibility of imposing energy sanctions, just because we have not taken an action so far does not mean that we will not take an action in the future,” explained a senior administration official Wednesday.