The Trump administration on Monday froze assets, banned travel and prohibited Americans from dealing with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, calling him a dictator and accusing him of undermining democracy after he carried out an election Sunday for an all-powerful new
The Trump administration on Monday froze assets, banned travel and prohibited Americans from dealing with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, calling him a dictator and accusing him of undermining democracy after he carried out an election Sunday for an all-powerful new legislative assembly in defiance of warnings from the international community.
As part of what are expected to be a series of escalating sanctions, the Treasury Department added Maduro to its growing list of sanctioned current and former members of the Venezuelan government and military.
“Maduro is not just a bad leader: He is now a dictator,” national security adviser Henry McMaster said from the White House briefing room Monday, reading a statement from President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has yet to settle on “strong and swift” economic actions that Trump threatened ahead of Sunday’s Venezuelan election for a new constituent assembly with the power to dissolve the opposition-held parliament, effectively wiping out the remnants of Venezuela’s democracy. McMaster called the vote a “sham election.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. would continue to monitor Venezuela but declined to detail potential future economic sanctions.
“Yesterday’s illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “By sanctioning Maduro, the United States makes clear our opposition to the policies of his regime and our support for the people of Venezuela who seek to return their country to a full and prosperous democracy.”
Mnuchin reiterated the threat to sanction all 545 constituent assembly members once they are seated. That would include Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, and powerful congressman Diosdado Cabello, as well as lowly socialist party members with no U.S. finances. The new assembly is supposed to take over in the next two days.
Mnuchin wouldn’t say what assets, if any, Maduro might hold. The U.S. has estimated Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who was sanctioned as a drug kingpin in February, has foreign assets of roughly $500 million.
Maduro is the fourth head of state sanctioned by the U.S. The others: Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Bashar Assad of Syria and Kim Jong Un of North Korea.
“He joins a very exclusive club,” McMaster quipped.
The U.S. plans to refrain from deploying its harshest sanction — a ban on Venezuelan oil imports — though it had raised that possibility ahead of Sunday’s election. Instead, the Trump administration is considering Russian-type financial sanctions to limit U.S. companies from trading in sovereign debt on primary or secondary markets. The sanctions could even be retroactive, affecting Goldman Sachs’ widely criticized May purchase of $2.8 billion worth of bonds issued by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, according to a former U.S. official who is familiar with the discussions.
The Trump administration wants to allow the U.S. to continue importing crude oil for refining, though it may prohibit U.S. companies from providing debt equity or any kind of investment to PDVSA. Nevertheless, a main objective of the National Security Council, State and Treasury leaders behind the sanctions is limiting the damage to U.S. companies.
“They could shield U.S. companies to a certain extent, but what you’re essentially doing is turning off the Venezuela economy,” the former U.S. official said.
The Venezuelan government said 8 million people, or nearly 42 percent of the electorate, voted Sunday, a figure forcefully disputed by Maduro’s opposition and independent observers, who estimated fewer than half as many ballots were cast. Streets were mostly empty Sunday, and most polling places were deserted in a country where turnout typically tops 70 percent. The government disallowed any internationally recognized observers from monitoring the polls.
“It’s when imperialism challenges us that we prove ourselves worthy of the blood of the liberators that runs through the veins of men, women, children and young people,” Maduro said shortly after midnight, as he celebrated the purported results and claimed a mandate to rewrite Venezuela’s 1999 constitution.
Sunday’s election turned deadly as government forces confronted demonstrators who tried to protest en masse against Maduro, an unpopular leftist who four years ago succeeded the late President Hugo Chavez. At least 16 people were reported dead in a 24-hour period beginning Saturday night. Opposition leaders called for protests Monday, though they appeared at least initially tepid.
Though roadblocks from Sunday still stood Monday in eastern Caracas, an opposition stronghold, only a few people heeded leaders’ call to protest at their homes and offices noon. A larger demonstration has been planned for 5 p.m.
“In 120 days of peaceful protest against the regime, they’ve never let us reached the places where we’ve wanted to go,” lamented 45-year-old Wilman Asuaje, his face weary with disappointment. “I’m a little disillusioned by the results, but we’re not defeated. We knew this was what was going to happen. Not even Chavez at his peak got that many votes, when people could still buy houses. When there was still food.”
Juan Manuel Gonzalez, 33, did take to the street, saying he felt reinvigorated to protest after Sunday.
“The governor took off its mask,” he said. “This is a dictatorship.”
With oil prices plunging, Venezuela’s mismanaged economy has collapsed, leading to rampant violence, food shortages and a political crisis that began in April when the Supreme Court, stacked by Maduro loyalists, tried to strip the democratically elected National Assembly’s power. More than 120 people, most of them young protesters, have died since.
Trump warned three weeks ago that carrying out the constituent assembly vote would result in “strong and swift economic actions” against “a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.” Last week, Treasury slapped sanctions on 13 Venezuelans tied to Maduro’s government, including Tibisay Lucena, the National Electoral Council president who announced Sunday’s questionable results.
International organizations and other Latin American countries condemned the election in an effort to pressure Maduro to call it off. He didn’t.
By Sunday, a slew of countries including Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Spain had disavowed the new assembly. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the U.S. would do the same, and the State Department condemned the election results.
The Trump administration considered prohibiting oil imports from Venezuela, the No. 3 supplier to the U.S. It ultimately decided against the ban in part because it might alienate regional partners. Though Maduro’s government apparently has no friends left in Washington, a ban also faced resistance among some Democrats and a few Republicans in Congress, who argued the U.S. would hurt Venezuelans and eliminate any lingering hope of negotiating a Venezuelan peace.
Some lawmakers also worried cutting off Venezuelan oil would raise U.S. gas prices, though the White House planned to increase oil purchases from Canada and other suppliers, and perhaps step up domestic production, to make up for the loss.
