U.S. embargo puts Venezuela in ‘club of rogue states’ like Cuba, Syria and North Korea
For the first time in three decades, Washington is imposing a full economic embargo on a government in the Western Hemisphere as it continues to try to drive Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro out of power.
Speaking at a meeting of foreign leaders in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the dramatic economic measure — rolled out late Monday — will force Maduro, 57, to capitulate.
“Not since an asset freeze against the (Manuel) Noriega government in Panama in 1988, a trade embargo on Nicaragua in 1985, or the comprehensive asset freeze and trade embargo on Cuba in 1962 have we taken this action,” Bolton said. “In each of these instances, we used robust economic tool against dictatorships that were destroying their countries with corruption, violence, and repression.”
“It worked in Panama, it worked in Nicaragua once, and it will work there again, and it will work in Venezuela and Cuba,” he said.
President Donald Trump late Monday signed an executive order that freezes all Venezuelan government assets in U.S. jurisdictions and prohibits all transactions with the government unless specifically exempted.
Critically, the order also authorizes sanctions against foreign companies and individuals who provide support, goods or services to the Venezuelan government or any of the more than 200 people and businesses who have been flagged over the years by the U.S. government. It also further restricts Venezuelan officials from entering the United States.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., applauded the move, saying that “any country or individual doing business with the Maduro crime family will face sanctions as they are perpetuating the agony of the Venezuelan people.”
But this week’s actions also fall short of an outright embargo like the one leveled against Cuba, which prohibits U.S. individuals and companies from doing business with anyone on the island — unless they’ve received an exemption. The Venezuelan sanctions are limited to the government, its agencies and those who have previously been flagged as bad actors by the U.S. government.