Obama Levels Sanctions Package on Venezuela
President Barack Obama ramped up efforts to address human rights abuses in Venezuela on March 9 by issuing an executive order to sanction top Venezuelan military and police officials. The Venezuelan government’s attacks on press freedom and ongoing persecution of political dissidents, among other rights violations, constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” said Obama in the executive order (here). The U.S. and other governments accuse Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro regime of violating human rights by continuing to crack down on political opposition in the country (here).
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The executive order blocks all property that enters the U.S. and prohibits entry into the country for Venezuelans identified as contributing to state violence or participating in corruption. Obama gave the Treasury Department authority to bring sanctions against any Venezuelan official. The executive order also authorizes sanctions against the Central Bank of Venezuela and other state institutions. The sanctions expand on the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 (here), a bill signed in December 2014, the White House said in a statement (here). “Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems,” said the White House. “We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent.”