MEXICO CITY — The U.S. government responded Thursday to Venezuela’s disputed July presidential election by imposing sanctions on 16 allies of President Nicolás Maduro, accusing them of obstructing the vote and committing human rights abuses.
Among those targeted by the Treasury are the president of the country’s Supreme Court, heads of state security forces and prosecutors. The move comes days after Edmundo González Urrutia, the former diplomat representing the main opposition parties who claimed to have won the July 28 presidential election by a landslide, went into exile.
Venezuelan electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner hours after the polls closed, but unlike in previous presidential elections, they never released a detailed vote count to back up their claim, arguing that the National Electoral Council’s website had been hacked. To the surprise of his supporters and opponents, González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado announced shortly afterward that their campaign had not only obtained vote counts from more than two-thirds of the electronic voting machines used in the election, but had also published them online to show the world that Maduro had lost.
International condemnation of the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s Supreme Court, made up of ruling party loyalists, to verify the results. The court reaffirmed his victory.
Experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, who observed the vote at the invitation of Maduro’s government, said the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. The U.N. experts did not validate the opposition’s claim of victory, but said the faction’s voting records published online appeared to have all the original security features.
“Rather than respecting the will of the Venezuelan people as expressed at the ballot box, Maduro and his representatives falsely claimed victory while repressing and intimidating the democratic opposition in an illegitimate attempt to cling to power by force,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The State Department announced it was imposing new visa restrictions on Maduro allies accused of obstructing the vote and repressing Venezuelans. The department did not name the individuals.
The potential effects of the individual sanctions and visa restrictions announced Thursday are unclear. Maduro loyalists, already sanctioned, still play key roles in the Venezuelan government, including as vice president, attorney general and defense minister.
A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the United States expected the latest announcement to “spark deeper reflection” among Maduro’s allies about how far they are willing to go to help him in his efforts to stay in power. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with the administration’s ground rules.
The Treasury has sanctioned more than 140 current and former Venezuelan officials. The State Department has identified nearly 2,000 individuals who may be subject to visa restrictions based on allegations of corruption, undermining democracy, or violating the human rights of Venezuelans.
The Venezuelan government issued a statement calling the latest round of sanctions “a crude act aimed at currying favor with a political class that has resorted to fascist and violent practices to overthrow, without success,” Maduro.
A joint statement by more than 50 countries, delivered Thursday at the United Nations by Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez, called on Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to “immediately publish” the vote-counting records and “allow the impartial verification of the results by independent observers in order to promote credibility, legitimacy and a transparent electoral process.”
The signatories, including the United States, Spain, Chile and South Korea, also denounced the repressive measures that Maduro’s government has been accused of implementing after the elections, including arbitrary detentions, intimidation tactics and assassinations.
“We express our deep concern about the politically motivated arrest warrant issued by the Venezuelan authorities” on September 3 against González and “forced him into exile,” the statement said.
González, in a statement published on X, tried to reassure voters of his promise to see a governmental transition in Venezuela.
“My commitment to the mandate I received from the sovereign people of Venezuela is unwavering,” he wrote. “The battle that Maria Corina Machado and I have waged remains unwavering.”
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