The US raises the reward for Maduro to 25 million dollars and announces new sanctions

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Blinken says that Maduro “has no right to claim the Presidency” because he “lost” the elections

MADRID, 10 (EUROPA PRESS)

The United States Government has increased the reward to 25 million dollars for information that facilitates the arrest or conviction of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, within a new package of measures that also includes sanctions against officials linked to Chavista institutions and with which Washington wants to make clear that the opponent Edmundo González is the “elected president.”

For Washington, it is “clear” that it is González “who should have been sworn in as president today,” since there is “irrefutable evidence” that he won the July 28 elections. “Unfortunately, Maduro has once again regretted his complete lack of respect for democratic norms and has continued with an illegitimate investiture,” indicate sources from Joe Biden’s Administration.

In response, Washington has increased the reward against Maduro from $15 to $25 million, the maximum amount contemplated as compensation for information on people accused of drug trafficking in the United States. The same amount is also offered by the Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, a key figure of Chavismo.

The North American Government also introduces a new reward to facilitate the arrest of the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, for whom up to 15 million dollars is offered.

In addition, the Biden Administration wants to expand its travel restrictions against people linked to acts of repression or the electoral process, while the North American Treasury has adopted a new package of economic sanctions against several senior officials of the Government and state companies, in one example. also of “solidarity” with the Venezuelan people.

The list includes the Minister of Transportation, Ramón Celestino Velásquez, and the Vice Minister of the Interior Féliz Ramón Osorio Guzmán, as well as members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC). Also included is the president of the state oil company PDVSA, Héctor Andrés Obregón Pérez.

These punishments imply the freezing of assets that the designated persons may have under the sovereignty of the United States and limitations on the establishment of commercial relations. Washington has insisted on concerted pressure measures with other international partners, including the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has reiterated on social networks that “the Venezuelan people and the world know that Nicolás Maduro lost the presidential elections.” “He has no right to claim the Presidency today. We are willing to support the return to democracy in Venezuela,” he stated.