MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Venezuela on Saturday condemned new sanctions that the U.S., Britain, and the European Union imposed the day before today, when the nation swore in President Nicolas Maduro for a 3rd time period after a six-month election dispute.
“The Venezuelan Armed Forces categorically and energetically rejects the new sanctions imposed by the infamous imperial brotherhood,” wrote basic Domingo Hernandez Larez, head of the Strategic Operational Command of the Nationwide Armed Forces of Venezuela in a press release posed on social media.
He known as the sanctions a “desperate action, outside the rule of international law.”
The condemnation got here after outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration elevated its reward to $25 million for data resulting in the arrest or conviction of Maduro on drug trafficking costs. The earlier reward was $15 million.
It additionally issued a $25 million reward for Inside Minister Diosdado Cabello and a $15 million reward for Protection Minister Vladimir Padrino, in addition to new sanctions towards eight different officers together with the pinnacle of state oil firm PDVSA Hector Obregon.
The U.S. indicted Maduro and others on narcotics and corruption costs, amongst others, in 2020. Maduro has rejected the accusations. In Hernandez’s assertion, he mentioned the Venezuelan authorities has carried out a “head-on attack against the scourge of drug trafficking.”
The U.S. transfer coincided with sanctions by Britain and the European Union, every focusing on 15 officers together with members of the Nationwide Electoral Council and the safety forces, and Canadian sanctions focusing on 14 present and former officers.
Maduro, president since 2013, was declared the winner of July’s election by each Venezuela’s electoral authority and high court docket, although detailed tallies confirming his victory have by no means been printed.
Venezuela’s opposition says poll box-level tallies present a landslide win for its former candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
Maduro’s practically 12 years in workplace have been marked by deep financial and social disaster and a exodus of tens of millions of Venezuelans fleeing the nation. His authorities has all the time rejected all sanctions, saying they’re illegitimate measures that quantity to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.
