Venezuela: US government announces new sanctions on Venezuela

Obama administration just threw an executive order announcing the targeting of seven Venezuelan officials, that the United States says, are involved in corruption in Venezuelan and violated human rights there. 

The President of the United Stated stated that the target of those individuals, and that the Treasury Department is authorized as well to  target other Venezuelan individuals. They claim that those peopole assets in the US will be frozen and prohibited form traveling to the country. Treasury will be able to add more people to their list. 

"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," the White House said in a release. (cnbc.com)

Who are these officers?

Commander of the Strategic Defense Central Region Integral (REDI), Antonio Benavides Torres; the director of the political police SEBIN Gustavo González López; the president of the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana and former commander of the National Guard Noguera Just Pietri and prosecutor Katherine Haringhton. 

The complete list of sanctioned officers is complete with the director of the Bolivarian National Police Manuel Pérez Urdaneta, the commander of the 31 Armoured Brigade of the Army Manuel Bernal Martinez and the Inspector General of the Armed Forces Miguel Vivas Landino. 

Related posts and links: 

Obama declares "national emergency" 

Obama declara emergencia por amenaza de Venezuela a Estados Unidos

Venezuela: Maduro imposes Visas to American Citizens

Photo Credit: NBC News

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that from now on, all Americans visiting the country must have a visa. The leader also asked to downsize the number of US embassy staff in Caracas.

“I've thought about it…First I have ordered the Foreign Ministry...to proceed immediately, to review...[and] limit the number of officials at the [US] embassy in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “They have 100 staff, we have 17.” 

“In order to protect our country...I have decided to implement a system of compulsory visas for all Americans entering Venezuela,” Maduro said in a speech on Saturday.

He claim that this is a reciprocal measure to equal what every Venezuelan needs to pay to travel to the US. While announcing this new measure, he affirmed that Venezuela has caught various american citizens involved in espionage. 

Bans Bush and Chaney 

While giving his speech he added that former US President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Republican Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Robert Menendez, and Marco Rubio won't have access to visas, labeling Bush and Cheney as “terrorists.”

The travel bans, Maduro said, target those who “violated human rights and bombed villages as in Iraq, Syria and Vietnam.”

From now on, US diplomats will be required to seek approval from the Foreign Ministry for meetings they conduct in Venezuela.

Related posts: 

Venezuela to shrink Us Embassy Staff here

Maduro says Venezuela detains U.S. citizens; announces moves against U.S. here