On November 27, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a total of 21 Venezuelan officials aligned with Nicolas Maduro who have supported his efforts to fraudulently declare himself the winner of Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election. According to OFAC, the designees are security and cabinet-level officials who have engaged in repressive actions, including the arbitrary arrest of democratic opposition supporters en masse and the violent suppression of protests, following the election – actions that undermine democratic governance and the legitimate exercise of free speech of Venezuela’s citizens. OFAC reported that these actions ignore the will of a majority of Venezuelan voters who elected Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s president and contributed to Urrutia’s departure from Venezuela prompted by unjustified arrest warrants issued against him.
OFAC designated senior officials in several Maduro-aligned military and police organizations, including the Bolivarian National Guard (“GNB”), Bolivarian National Police (“BNP”), Bolivarian Militia, and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (“SEBIN”). In addition, the U.S. Department of State concurrently took steps to impose new visa restrictions under Presidential Proclamation 9931 on Maduro-aligned individuals responsible for undermining electoral processes in Venezuela or engaging in acts of repression.
The OFAC designations were imposed pursuant to Executive Order 13692, as amended, for contributing to the situation in Venezuela by taking anti-democratic actions and violating human rights. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated persons within the United States or within the possession or control of a U.S. person are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving a designated person. Entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.