The announcement got here as Washington slapped Venezuela with one other spherical of sanctions
The US has elevated its reward for data resulting in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $25 million, up from the $15 million supplied in 2020, the US Treasury introduced on Friday. The transfer comes as a part of a broader set of measures, together with sanctions and journey restrictions, concentrating on officers related to the Venezuelan authorities.
Washington has refused to acknowledge Maduro because the winner of the July 2024 presidential election, calling the vote rigged and undemocratic. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed final August that the US possessed “overwhelming proof” suggesting that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was the precise winner of the election.
On Friday, the day of Maduro’s inauguration, the Treasury additionally accused the Venezuelan authorities of “repression and subversion of democracy.”
Along with the elevated bounty on Maduro, the US introduced a $25 million reward for data resulting in the arrest of Inside Minister Diosdado Cabello and a $15 million reward for Protection Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez. The Treasury accused them of taking part in a task in “repression and human rights abuses.”
Different Venezuelan officers, together with the president of the state-owned oil firm PDVSA and the transportation minister, in addition to plenty of high-ranking army and law enforcement officials, have been additionally sanctioned.
In December, the pinnacle of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit on the US embassy in Colombia, Francisco Palmieri, set Caracas an ultimatum, demanding that Maduro step down earlier than his inauguration in January and acknowledge Gonzalez because the winner.
“If he stays, issues will solely worsen for Venezuela,” Palmieri acknowledged.
Caracas didn’t reply to the ultimatum. Nor has it commented on the newest spherical of US sanctions. Maduro, a staunch critic of US overseas coverage, slammed Washington earlier this week for pushing for regime change.
The US is funding “corrupt and delinquent” former leaders throughout Latin America to hurt Caracas, the president stated.
“Sufficient of interventionism, sufficient of extremism, sufficient of Lima teams,” he stated, taking particular goal on the Lima Group, a casual pact of 12 governments backing the US coverage of isolating Venezuela since 2017.
You possibly can share this story on social media:
Supply hyperlink
