Trump freezes Venezuela assets:
The Trump administration froze all Venezuelan government assets Monday in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Nicolás Maduro that places his socialist administration alongside a short list of adversaries from Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Iran that have been targeted by such aggressive US actions.
The ban blocking American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro’s government and its top supporters, which takes effect immediately, is the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere in over three decades, following an asset freeze against Gen Manuel Noriega’s government in Panama and a trade embargo on the Sandinista leadership in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
While the order falls short of an outright trade embargo – notably, it spares Venezuela’s still sizable private sector – it represents the most sweeping US action to remove Maduro since the Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader in January. Critically, it also exposes foreign entities doing business with the Maduro government to US retaliation.
“The apparent goal is to give the US the ability to apply the law beyond its borders to allies of Maduro like China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and Turkey,” said Russ Dallen, the Miami-based head of Caracas Capital Markets brokerage. “Should those foreign entities continue doing business with Maduro they can have their US assets seized.”
The executive order signed by President
Donald Trump justified the move by citing Maduro’s “continued usurpation of power” and human rights abuses by security forces loyal to him.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton hinted earlier Monday that far-reaching US action was close at hand. Speaking to reporters on the eve of an international conference in Peru to show support for Guaidó, he said that the US was readying measures “that will show the determination that the United States has to get a peaceful transfer of power.”
The measures are likely to exacerbate suffering in already moribund economy marked by six-digit hyperinflation and a deep, multi-year contraction that surpasses that of the Great Depression in the US. (AP)