US imposes sanctions on Maduro after disputed Constituent Assembly elections


nsnbc : The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with immediate effect on Monday, July 31. Sanctions were imposed over a disputed election of a Constituent Assembly tasked with writing a Constitution to replace the one adopted under the late Hugo Chavez in 1999.

Warming up for the final act of democracy in Venezuela?

Warming up for the final act of democracy in Venezuela?

A defiant President Maduro said he would not take “imperial orders” from the United States while the US, the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD)coalition which holds an absolute majority in the suspended National Assembly, as well as the Workers’ Confederation and a cohort of other civil society organizations denounce Maduro as want-to-be dictator and the attempt to rewrite the Constitution as attempted constitutional coup.

The US sanctions were unusual in as much as the directly affect a head of state. However, the net effect of the sanctions is largely symbolic. It includes the freezing of any assets Maduro may hold in the United States and banning people under U.S. jurisdiction from dealing with him. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters “Yesterday’s illegitimate elections confirm that Maduro is a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people”.

Maduro lashed out at the move, saying it smacked of American imperialism. “I will not obey imperial orders,” he said. “I am so proud, Mr Donald Trump,” Maduro joked in English, before switching to slang in Spanish: “Go for it, already. I am being targeted with sanctions because I do not obey the orders of foreign governments.”

Neighboring Colombia, Mexico, Peru and other nations joined the U.S. in saying they did not recognize the results of Sunday’s election, which appointed a new “Constituent Assembly” superseding Venezuela’s legislative body, the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who broke with him months ago over his policies, also said she would not acknowledge the body, calling it part of the president’s “dictatorial ambition.” The European Union expressed “preoccupation for the fate of democracy in Venezuela” and said it, too, doubted it could accept the results. Britain’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson warned that Venezuela “stands on the brink of disaster.”

CH/L – nsnbc 01.08.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/01/us-imposes-sanctions-on-maduro-after-disputed-constituent-assembly-elections/

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