SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The United States government has prepared a list of approximately 60 Venezuelan federal government officials and members of their families who could be subject to sanctions following the July 28 presidential elections.
According to the agency ReutersThe proposed list identifies officials from Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), the Supreme Court and the counterintelligence police who have been involved in the situation that erupted after the elections, where protesters demanding transparency in a process in which officials refuse to show the minutes of the vote count have been repressed and imprisoned.
The U.S. Treasury Department has submitted a draft list to the State Department, which will decide who will be sanctioned. The number could change, the press reported.
Exclusive: The US drafted a list of about 60 Venezuelan government officials and family members who could be sanctioned in the first punitive measures following the South American country’s disputed presidential election in July, sources tell @Reuters https://t.co/HDG6hydFsD
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 21, 2024
Punitive measures include travel bans on sanctioned officials and family members, and restrictions on U.S. entities doing business with them.
It is currently unknown when the proceedings will be announced or whether they might be accompanied by sanctions.
This development comes at a time of extreme tension in Venezuela, where popular protests and repression by the regime have increased after the CNE declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections, without presenting evidence of his victory.
Member states of the OAS, the European Union and others have demanded the publication of the full election results. However, so far no drastic measures have been taken against what many have considered electoral fraud.
Recently, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution requiring the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE) publish “expeditiously” the minutes of the vote counting of the presidential elections of July 28, broken down.
The resolutionpromoted by the United States Government and supported by Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Uruguay, as co-sponsors, also called on the CNE to respect “the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty through an impartial verification of the results that guarantees the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process,” according to the report. Infobae.
He also called on “all interested parties, political and social actors, including the Venezuelan authorities, to refrain from any conduct that could jeopardize the peaceful solution to this crisis, fully respecting the sovereign will of the Venezuelan electorate.”
The regional non-governmental organization, Electoral Transparency, also denounced the presence of “false international electoral observers” in Venezuela who are trying to legitimize the electoral fraud perpetrated by Chavismo after the elections of July 28.
