US sanctions 16 Maduro allies for role in obstruction of Venezuela election

The United States has issued new sanctions on 16 allies of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, accusing them of obstructing the 28 July election and of aiding the crackdown that followed a vote widely seen to have been stolen.

Those targeted include members of the supreme court and the country’s electoral council – including their respective chiefs, Caryslia Rodríguez and Antonio Jose Meneses – “who impeded a transparent electoral process and the release of accurate election results”, the US treasury said on Thursday.

Others on the new sanctions list are military leaders, intelligence officials and government officers “responsible for intensifying repression through intimidation, indiscriminate detentions and censorship”, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Hours after polls closed on 28 July, Venezuela’s electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor, though they never released detailed vote tallies to back up their claim, while the opposition compiled concrete proof that the opposition candidate Edmundo González had won. Amid global condemnation over the lack of transparency, Venezuela’s high court, stacked with ruling party loyalists, reaffirmed Maduro’s victory.

In the ensuing crackdown, at least 2,000 people have been arrested, and González himself fled to Spain.

Among those sanctioned are the leaders of Operation Tun Tun – “Operation Knock Knock” – a string of raids in which perceived government opponents have been rounded up by heavily armed, black-clad captors from the intelligence services or police.

They include Asdrubal Jose Brito Hernandez, a director within the military counter-intelligence unit, who has been described as a torturer in a United Nations 2022 report. According to the OFAC, Hernandez’s unit “has led a coordinated ‘Operation Knock Knock’ campaign to harass, detain and arbitrarily arrest opposition and civil society members following the election”.

Announcing the new sanctions, the deputy secretary of the treasury, Wally Adeyemo, said: “Today, the United States is taking decisive action against Maduro and his representatives for their repression of the Venezuelan people and denial of their citizens’ rights to a free and fair election.”

Maduro himself has been under US sanctions since 2017.

Adeyemo added that the treasury department was “targeting key officials involved in Maduro’s fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and his brutal crackdown on free expression following the election, as the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans call for change”.

The new sanctions come just days after González was forced to leave Venezuela under the threat of arrest by the regime.

In a statement on Thursday, González wrote: “My commitment to the mandate I received from the sovereign people of Venezuela is irrevocable … The struggle continues until the end.”