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 U.S. President Barack Obama signed and issued the executive order,
which senior administration officials said did not target
Venezuela's energy sector or broader economy. But the move stokes
tensions between Washington and Caracas just as U.S. relations with
Cuba, a longtime U.S. foe in Latin America and key ally to
Venezuela, are set to be normalized.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denounced the sanctions as an
attempt to topple his government. At the end of a thundering
two-hour speech, Maduro said he would seek decree powers to counter
the "imperialist" threat, and appointed one of the sanctioned
officials as the new interior minister.
Declaring any country a threat to national security is the first
step in starting a U.S. sanctions program. The same process has been
followed with countries such as Iran and Syria, U.S. officials said.
The White House said the order targeted people whose actions
undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts
of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting
or penalizing freedom of expression, or were government officials
involved in public corruption.
"Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights
of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will
not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets
and their use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said in a statement.
"We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to
escalate intimidation of its political opponents," he added.
Venezuela called home its charge d'affaires in Washington for
consultations, and Maduro accused Obama of a "colossal mistake" and
"imperialist arrogance" similar to his predecessors Richard Nixon
and George W. Bush.
"President Barack Obama ... has personally decided to take on the
task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to
control it," Maduro said in a televised address.
In response, Maduro said he would on Tuesday ask the National
Assembly, controlled by the ruling Socialists, to grant him decree
powers - for the second time in his nearly two-year rule through a
so-called Enabling Law, which critics blast as a power grab.
Maduro also paraded the seven officials, hailing them as "heroes"
and naming national intelligence head Gustavo Gonzalez, whom
Washington accuses of complicity in violence against protesters, as
new interior minister.
DENIED ENTRY
The two countries have not had full diplomatic representation since
2008, when late socialist leader Hugo Chavez expelled then-U.S.
Ambassador Patrick Duddy. Washington responded by expelling
Venezuelan envoy Bernardo Alvarez.
The list of sanctioned individuals includes: Gonzalez, the head of
state intelligence service Sebin; Manuel Perez, director of the
national police; and Justo Noguero, a former National Guard
commander who runs state mining firm CVG. It also includes three
other military officers and a state prosecutor.
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The individuals' would have their property and interests in the
United States blocked or frozen and would be denied entry into the
United States. U.S. citizens and permanent residents would be
prohibited from doing business with them.
The White House also called on Venezuela to release all political
prisoners.
"We've seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to
distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other
members of the international community for events inside Venezuela,"
Earnest said in the statement.
U.S. officials told reporters in a conference call that the
executive order did not target the Venezuelan people or economy and
stressed that upcoming legislative elections should be held without
intimidation of government opponents.
The sanctions effectively confirm Venezuela as the United States'
primary adversary in Latin America, a label that was for decades
applied to Communist-run Cuba until Washington and Havana announced
a diplomatic breakthrough in December.
Washington said last week it would respond through diplomatic
channels to Venezuela's demand for it to cut the U.S. Embassy's
staff in Caracas after the government called for a plan within 15
days to reduce staff to 17 from 100 at the American facility.
Commercial ties between Venezuela and the United States have largely
been unaffected by diplomatic flare-ups, which were common during
Chavez's 14-year-rule.
The United States is Venezuela's top trading partner, and the OPEC
member in 2014 remained the fourth-largest supplier of crude to the
United States at an average of 733,000 barrels per day - despite a
decade-long effort by Caracas to diversify its oil shipments to
China and India.
Opposition leader and twice-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles
told Reuters the sanctions were a problem for a corrupt elite in the
Maduro government, but not ordinary Venezuelans.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton, additional reporting
by Brian Ellsworth, Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas;
Editing by G Crosse, Paul Tait and Jeremy Laurence)
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