UNITED NATIONS (CN) — The White House’s announcement Friday of sweeping sanctions against Venezuela sparked a flurry of activity before the United Nations Security Council.
As U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley ratcheted up her rhetoric against what she called the Bolivarian republic’s “dictatorship,” Venezuela’s foreign minister Jorge Arreaza cast Washington’s actions as the “worst aggression” in the nation’s more than 200-year history.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for his part, emphasized the need for de-escalation.
“The secretary-general reiterated his view that a political solution based on dialogue and compromise between the government and the opposition is essential, and urgent, to address the challenges faced by the country in a context of respect for rule of law and human rights,” he said.
Signed this morning in an executive order by President Donald Trump, the new round of crippling sanctions prohibit dealings in new debt and equity issued by the government of Venezuela and PDVSA, the republic’s state-run oil giant.
The sanctions also prohibit dealings in certain existing bonds owned by the Venezuelan public sector, as well as dividend payments to the government of Venezuela.
“These measures are carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule, protect the United States financial system from complicity in Venezuela’s corruption and in the impoverishment of the Venezuelan people, and allow for humanitarian assistance,” the White House said in a statement.
The Treasury Department will issue exemptions for some transactions that the sanctions would normally block, including “financing for most commercial trade,” as well as dealings with Venezuelan-owned oil company Citgo.
Spotting a conflict of interest in this carve-out, the Daily Beast noted that Citgo gave $500,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee.
The exemptions will also allow financing for humanitarian goods and the export and import of petroleum, which the White House said will help “mitigate harm to the American and Venezuelan people.”
“The United States reiterates our call that Venezuela restore democracy, hold free and fair elections, release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally and end the repression of the Venezuelan people,” the statement says. “We continue to stand with the people of Venezuela during these trying times.”
Complicating this appeal, however, Trump’s State Department announced earlier this year that it would not let human-rights concerns guide foreign policy. The office is headed of course by former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson. Vice President Mike Pence hinted at the sanctions earlier this week, promising an audience in Florida that the United States would bring “the full measure of U.S. economic and diplomatic power to bear” against Maduro’s government.
Among several Republican lawmakers who have been pushing for such force, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio praised the White House’s move on Friday and referred to Maduro as a “dictator.”
