RSS Feed
July 27th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : The United States, amidst a wave of strikes and protests against the attempt by the PSUV administration of President Nicolas Maduro, to rewrite the 1999 Constitution adopted under the late Hugo Chavez.
CNE’s Tibisay Lucena (archives)
The sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of those affected and prohibit U.S. entities from doing business with them. Those targeted by the sanctions include Venezuela’s interior minister and the head of the army.
The sanctions were imposed after U.S. President Donald Trump, last week, vowed “strong and swift economic actions” if President Nicolas Maduro and the PSUV administration held elections for a Constituent Assembly on July 30. The assembly would be tasked with rewriting the 1999 Constitution adopted under the late President Hugo Chavez.
On Wednesday, amidst a nationwide strike, Maduro said “Who do these imperialists in the United States think they are. … The government of the world”. Maduro denounced the sanctions as “illegal, insolent and unprecedented”.
The sanctions are, arguably, illegal, but anyone with some basic insights into U.S. policy would have to agree they are not unprecedented.
What many, even among those who support strikes against the PSUV, Maduro, and the plan to change the Constitution, would maintain, is that U.S. sanctions and to some degree State Department interference in internal Venezuelan affairs are not constructive; that U.S.’ intentions and interests do no necessarily concur with the best interests of Venezuela, nor the best interests of those who may feel that they need to rely on international support, from the USA included.
The vote, which the PSUV administration says will proceed as planned, is to choose the 545 members of a new constituent assembly that would rival the opposition-held National Assembly.
Critics say the president is trying to cement a one-party dictatorship while the PSUV insists that a new constitution would “consolidate the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution“.
The U.S. sanctions also target the head of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, and former vice president Elias Jaua, who is leading the presidential commissions organising Sunday’s vote. The inclusion of senior figures from the state oil company PDVSA underlines a further threat from Washington that sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector could be next.
Announcing the sanctions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. “will not ignore the Maduro regime’s ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom, and the rule of law”.
Maduro has accused the U.S. of stoking unrest against his government, but President Trump said last week that Washington “will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles”. A 48-hour general strike is currently under way in Venezuela, in protest at the planned vote.
CH/L – nsnbc 27.07.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/07/27/us-imposes-sanctions-against-13-venezuelan-officials/
Posted in 
Tags: 
