CARACAS, Venezuela – The Trump administration fired a farewell shot at Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday, announcing a comprehensive round of rigid financial sanctions aimed at a network accused of transporting oil on behalf of the president’s alleged leader.
In a sign of the future US policy towards Venezuela, the choice of President-elect Joe Biden to be Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, during his confirmation hearing of the US Senate in Washington showed support for the decision to recognize the opposition politician and Maduro’s rival, Juan Guaidó.
Blinken also expressed frustration at the results of current US policy, which has not led to free and fair elections in Venezuela. He said there is room for better coordination with allied nations to restore democracy in the crisis-ridden South American country.
“We may need to see how to more effectively target the sanctions we have,” said Blinken. “So that the regime’s facilitators really feel the pain of these sanctions.”
Venezuela, once a nation rich in oil production, has fallen into an economic and political crisis in recent years, which has caused a flood of more than 5 million people to escape. They are escaping a collapse in public services and a lack of running water, electricity and gasoline.
In the latest round of sanctions to try to pressure Maduro to leave, the U.S. Treasury Department targeted three individuals, 14 business entities and six ships with financial measures. They are accused of helping Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA to evade US sanctions aimed at preventing the president from profiting from oil sales.
Trump, who leaves the White House on Wednesday, has led an international coalition for the past two years, putting increasing pressure on Maduro to end what American officials call his illegitimate control of power.
The White House recognizes Guaidó as the nation’s legitimate leader, blaming Maduro for Venezuela’s economic and political ruin. The White House says he clings to power after the 2018 non-democratic elections, when his main rivals were banned from running.
“The United States remains committed to targeting those who allow Maduro’s regime to abuse Venezuela’s natural resources,” said US Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin in a statement.
The sanctions target people and companies linked to Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman who, according to American officials, is a close friend of Maduro. Saab is imprisoned in Cape Verde while fighting extradition to the US to face corruption charges.
The main targets of the sanctions are Alessandro Bazzoni, Francisco Javier D’Agostino Casado, Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, Elemento Ltd. and Swissoil Trading SA.
Bazzoni, an Italian commodities trader based in London, declined a request from The Associated Press for comment.
Maduro’s government criticized the sanctions as yet another act of “imperialist aggression” aimed at destroying Venezuela’s ability to meet its own needs by selling oil after four years of attacks by the Trump administration.
“The Venezuelan people and their revolutionary government continue to present themselves proudly today, with our dignity intact,” said the statement, adding that the Trump administration has been “repudiated by its people.”
The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control blocks any assets that individuals and businesses target in United States jurisdictions and prevents Americans from entering into financial transactions with them.
The U.S. Department of Commerce also announced measures on Tuesday to prevent US technology from being used by military intelligence in countries like China, Cuba, Russia and Venezuela.
Commerce officials in a statement said in Venezuela that they seek to deprive the Directorate General for Military Counterintelligence of any U.S. technology. Human rights groups accuse the counterintelligence agency of abuses against its own citizens, including torture.
United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo spoke on Monday by telephone to Guaidó. US State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said the two talked about their common goal of seeing a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela.
Pompeo expressed his “personal respect and appreciation” to Guaidó for “the opposition leader’s commitment to the cause of freedom and his inspiring leadership for millions of Venezuelans who yearn for a better future,” said Ortagus.
In a January 16 letter from Saab’s lawyer to the AP, Saab writes that Trump’s use of sanctions has ruined lives and destroyed nations like Venezuela.
In it, Saab asks how Trump can have “unimaginable influence over foreign adversaries” that gives the US president “his own ‘superpower’” through a division of the U.S. Treasury Department called OFAC. The Trump administration sanctioned dozens of Maduro’s allies, trying to isolate the leader.
“OFAC can accuse anyone, at any time, without warning, without the opportunity to address issues before designation, before the destruction of companies built over years of hard work and before the destruction of lives and reputations,” says the Letter. “OFAC then opens its mouth to swallow supplications and fees on an unprecedented scale.”
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Associated Press writer Scott Smith reported this story in Caracas and AP writer Joshua Goodman reported from Miami.