Above photo: The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), belonging to the US Department of the Treasury, enables their imperial blockades of Venezuela and numerous other nations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), belonging to the US Department of the Treasury, has imposed new set of unlawful sanctions against Venezuela.
The new sanctions, announced by a US Treasury press release published this Thursday, September 12, target 16 officials from different public branches and the military for supporting the sovereign and democratic will of the Venezuelan people in the last presidential elections on July 28 and refusing to follow the latest US-led imperial coup plot aiming at ousting President Nicolás Maduro.
According to the statement, the new sanctions against Venezuela include “key officials” involved in the presidential elections, which gave Nicolás Maduro the victory with more than 52% of the votes.
“’Today, the United States is taking decisive action against Maduro and his representatives for their repression of the Venezuelan people and denial of their citizens’ rights to a free and fair election,’ said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. ‘The Treasury Department is targeting key officials involved in Maduro’s fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and his brutal crackdown on free expression following the election, as the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans call for change. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to use our tools to hold Maduro and his cronies accountable and support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people,’” reads part of the US Treasury press release that replicates the White House narrative against the Bolivarian Revolution and Chavismo.
Among those sanctioned are members of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) are among those sanctioned: its president, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez, and judges Inocencio Antonio Figueroa, Malaquías Gil, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, and Fanny Beatriz Márquez.
At the National Electoral Council (CNE), the measure extends to the rector, Rosalba Gil Pacheco, and the CNE’s secretary general, Antonio José Meneses.
Edward Miguel Briceño Cisneros, special judge of the First Court of First Instance with jurisdiction in matters of terrorism, the prosecutor Luis Ernesto Duenez Reyes, and the prosecutor of the First Special Court of First Instance (of the DGCIM), Dinorah Yoselin Bustamante Puerta, are included on this list.
High-ranking officials are targeted as well including the first vice president of the National Assembly, Pedro José Infante, and the strategic operational commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), Domingo Antonio Hernández Lárez, as well as the commander of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), Elio Ramón Estrada Paredes, and the commander of REDI Capital of the GNB, Johan Alexander Hernández Lárez.
Finally on the list are the director of Criminal Investigations of the DGCIM, Asdrúbal José Brito Hernández, and the deputy director of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), Miguel Antonio Muñoz Palacios.
Mainstream media and US officials have been announcing the imposition of this new set of sanctions against Venezuela for weeks. Some Chavista leaders, like Diosdado Cabello, have publicly wondered why Washington was taking so long to make the sanctions official, and whether or not this was part of US political calculations amidst the upcoming US presidential elections.
Simultaneously, the US is pushing its subordinated governments within Latin America to revitalize the extinct Lima Group in a new wave of “diplomatic pressure” in an attempt to isolate Venezuela for choosing to be independent from the imperial path of the US and its allies.