Vice President Mike Pence on Monday announced new sanctions against loyalists of Venezuela’s Nicolàs Maduro and asked a coalition of nations to freeze assets of the state-owned oil company after deadly violence blocked humanitarian aid from reaching the starving nation.
“As we continue to bring economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on the Maduro regime, we hope for a peaceful transition to democracy, but as President Trump has made clear, all options are on the table,” Pence told a 14-nation diplomatic consortium in Bogota, Colombia.
“It’s time to do more,” Pence said during the emergency summit. “The day is coming soon when Venezuela’s long nightmare will end, when Venezuela will once more be free, when her people will see a new birth of freedom, in a nation reborn to libertad.”
He called on the Lima Group — a bloc of mostly conservative Latin American nations and Canada that is dedicated to a peaceful resolution of the Venezuelan crisis — to immediately freeze the assets of state oil giant PDVSA, the largest generator of hard currency for Maduro’s regime.
Pence also said tougher measures were coming: “In the days ahead . . . the United States will announce even stronger sanctions on the regime’s corrupt financial networks,” he said.
The US Treasury Department announced Monday that it was imposing new sanctions on four Venezuelan governors connected to Maduro’s government, blocking any assets they control in the United States.
The four are Omar José Prieto Fernandez, the governor of Zulia, which the US described as a hub for organized crime; Ramon Alonso Carrizales Rengifo, the governor of Apure, who had “endorsed” threats of violence against opposition protesters; Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro, the governor of Vargas, who has rejected Juan Guaidó as interim president; and Rafael Alejandro Lacava Evangelista, the governor of Carabobo, who was described as a Maduro intermediary involved in hiding funds overseas.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said they had blocked the humanitarian aid shipments.
Four people were killed and at least 300 wounded by forces loyal to Maduro during protests Saturday as US-backed aid convoys tried to enter Venezuela to deliver food and medicine.
Pence met Monday with Guaidó, the opposition leader, in Bogota and assured him, “We are with you 100 percent.”
Pence also said the US is sending another $56 million to neighbors of Venezuela to help them cope with migrants fleeing the worsening crisis.
With Post wires