White House slaps Venezuela with sweeping sanctions

CARACAS, Venezuela — The Trump administration slapped sweeping financial sanctions on Venezuela on Friday, dramatically ratcheting up tensions between the two countries and making it harder for embattled President Nicolas Maduro to raise badly needed cash to prevent a debt default.

The sanctions, which Trump signed by executive order, prohibit American financial institutions from providing new money to the government or the state oil company, PDVSA. They also restrict the Venezuelan oil giant’s U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, from sending dividends back to Venezuela and ban trading in two bonds the government recently issued to circumvent its increasing isolation from Western financial markets.

“Maduro may no longer take advantage of the American financial system to facilitate the wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy at the expense of the Venezuelan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House.

The financial sanctions drew quick rebuke from Venezuela’s government, with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza calling them the worst aggression against the country in two centuries.

“What do they want — they want to starve the Venezuelan people?” Arreaza told reporters at the United Nations after meeting with Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

He said his government would fight the measures with all of its diplomatic and economic strength, but also blamed members of the opposition — some of whom expressed satisfaction with the U.S. action — for conspiring to bring further hardships on the Venezuelan economy.

“We are also victims, as he is, of fake news,” Arreaza said in a rare show of solidarity with Trump.

A senior Trump administration official said additional sanctions would be imposed if Maduro doesn’t reverse course and meet opposition demands that he roll back plans to rewrite the constitution, free dozens of political prisoners, and hold fair and transparent elections.