US sanctions Venezuela security chiefs for crackdown

The United States slapped sanctions on 21 top Venezuelan security and cabinet officials Wednesday, accusing them of a campaign of repression after President Nicolas Maduro's bitterly contested July reelection.

The fresh measures come after Washington and the G7 said they recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect, amid accusations of fraud against Maduro.

"Maduro and his representatives' repressive actions in the wake of the Venezuelan presidential election are a desperate attempt to silence the voices of its citizens," Bradley Smith, the acting under secretary of the Treasury Department, said in a statement.

Fifteen leaders of the Venezuelan security apparatus are among those hit by an asset freeze, including the heads of the intelligence service, military counterintelligence service, the national guard and the police.

The sanctions also target the Venezuelan communications minister and the head of the prison service.

"All of these entities are part of Maduro's security apparatus and are responsible for violently repressing peaceful protesters and carrying out arbitrary detention," a senior US administration official told reporters.

The US Treasury said Venezuelan security forces had also issued an "unjustified arrest warrant" for Urrutia, forcing him to flee to Spain.

At the same time, the US State Department said it was expanding visa restrictions on Maduro's allies.

"Maduro's security apparatus has engaged in widespread abuses, including killings, repression, and mass detention of protestors," the State Department said in a statement.

In September, the United States announced sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials over alleged election fraud.

They included senior figures in the Venezuelan electoral council and Supreme Court, with the US Treasury saying at the time that they "impeded a transparent electoral process and the release of accurate election results."

Maduro claimed victory in the election and defied intense domestic and international pressure to release detailed polling numbers to back up the assertion.

Amid an outcry at home and abroad, the former bus driver handpicked by the late authoritarian strongman Hugo Chavez is now serving his third term.

But the oil-rich country's economy is in shambles, as Venezuelans endure acute shortages of food, medicine and other basic goods.

Maduro is accused of leading a harshly repressive leftist regime, with a systematic crackdown on the opposition.

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