WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Yesterday the United States imposed sanctions on two people and companies, he said, who played a role in fraudulent elections in Venezuela, keeping pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro even as the term of US President Donald Trump is approaching.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it was blacklisted by Venezuelan biometric technology company Ex-Cle Soluciones Biometricas CA, which said it provided goods and services used by the Maduro government to hold parliamentary elections earlier this month.
The United States, the European Union and more than a dozen Latin American countries said last week that they would not recognize the results of a parliamentary election in Venezuela on Dec. 6, which saw Maduro’s allies win a majority.
“Maduro’s illegal regime attempts to steal elections in Venezuela show his disregard for the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement yesterday.
“The United States remains committed to targeting the Maduro regime and those who support its goal of denying Venezuelan people their right to free and fair elections,” he added. Also targeted were two individuals who the Treasury said had acted on behalf of or on behalf of Ex-Cle Soluciones Biometricas CA, targeting Argentina and Italy’s national Guillermo Carlos San Agustin and Venezuelan’s Marcos Javier Machado Requena. Maduro, who has accused the United States of trying to overthrow it to gain control over Venezuela’s oil resources, fired US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in response to the announcement.
“The disgraceful Mike Pompeo today imposed some silly sanctions, like the good imbecile that he is…. against the company and the businessmen who were producing machines so that Venezuelan people could vote, ”Maduro said in a televised broadcast.
The move freezes any assets in the US from the company and people and generally prohibits Americans from dealing with them.
The Trump administration has carried out a campaign of sanctions and diplomatic measures in an effort to replace Maduro, whose re-election in 2018 was considered a hoax by most Western countries.