WASHINGTON / CARACAS (dpa-AFX) – Ahead of the controversial parliamentary election in Venezuela, the US imposed sanctions on five other Venezuelan politicians. “These people acted as part of a broader plan to manipulate the December 6th general election,” the Treasury Department said Tuesday. They are accused of cooperating with the government of the authoritarian President Nicols Maduro and “undermining democracy”. Your US assets will be frozen and US citizens will not be allowed to do business with them.
The sanctioned include bosses and general secretaries of opposition parties who are actually loyal to the government and have been appointed to the positions by the Maduro-related supreme electoral court. The US had already imposed sanctions on a number of officials loyal to the government in early September.
Many members of the opposition fear election fraud and want to boycott the vote. Parliament is currently the last state power in the hands of the opposition. However, Maduro has withdrawn all powers and transferred them to a constitutional assembly loyal to the government./mfa/DP/fba
