U.S. blacklists Venezuelan state banks after arrest of Guaido aide

WASHINGTON/CARACAS, (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions yesterday on Venezuela’s development bank, Bandes, a day after the Trump administration warned there would be consequences for the arrest by Venezuelan authorities of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s top aide.

The U.S. Treasury said it was slapping the sanctions on Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela, including its subsidiaries in Uruguay and Bolivia. It also imposed sanctions on state-owned Venezuelan commercial banks, including Banco de Venezuela and Banco Bicentenario.

In a statement, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said it “energetically rejects the unilateral, coercive, arbitrary and illegal measures” taken by the Trump administration. It said the sanctions would affect millions of Venezuelan people and companies who use the banks.

Congress head Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January, has accused Bandes of being used by President Nicolas Maduro’s government to funnel money outside Venezuela.

The White House said in a statement it was committed to preventing Maduro’s government from stealing Venezuela’s resources and from arresting those pushing for political change.

Guaido’s chief of staff, Roberto Marrero, was detained in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, sparking vows of reprisals from the United States, which along with most Western countries backs Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

“The United States will not tolerate the arrest of peaceful democratic actors, including members of the democratically-elected Venezuelan National Assembly and those Venezuelans working with interim President Juan Guaido,” the White House said in a statement.

In a tweet last evening, Guaido said he had been informed that Marrero was being transported from jail to court. He demanded Marrero be freed, calling the judges who would hear his case “complicit with the dictatorship.”