U.S. sanctions eight more Venezuelan officials, including Chavez brother
The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on eight more Venezuelan officials, including the brother of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, to punish them for helping President Nicolas Maduro to create a new legislative superbody, U.S. officials said, according to Reuters Agency.
The source detailed the United States targeted individual politicians and security figures but stopped short of placing broader financial or "sectoral" sanctions on its vital oil industry – though such actions, the officials told Reuters, are still under consideration.
The new measures announced by the Treasury Department will freeze their U.S. assets, ban them from travel to the United States and prohibit Americans from doing business with them. Washington slapped sanctions on Maduro himself last week following similar action against 13 Venezuelan figures on July 26.
It marked a further escalation of the U.S. response to Maduro’s crackdown on the opposition and the establishment last week of the new constituent assembly, an all-powerful body run by his Socialist Party loyalists and which has drawn international condemnation.