The U.S. government has imposed economic sanctions on a senior Venezuelan aviation official, who runs the state-owned airline Convisa in a larger effort targeting individuals the United States deems critical of President Nicolas Maduro’s corrupt government. The enabling party believes.
Conviasa Presidency Ramon Celestino Velasquez Araguayan, who has also served as the transportation minister in Venezuela since May 2023. He is among eight Venezuelan officials who have been affected by new US sanctions the US Treasury Department said on January 10.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the eight officials “Maduro-aligned individuals who support Maduro’s illegitimate claims of authority and repressive acts in Venezuela.”
The Treasury Department says those officials “lead key economic and security agencies capable of supporting Nicolas Maduro’s repression and destruction of democracy in Venezuela”.
Seven other recently sanctioned officials include the president of the nation’s state-owned oil company and an interior policy minister as well as five military and police officials. US Citizens are currently prohibited from conducting business with them or engaging in transactions that involve their property.
The US revealed the sanctions on the day that Maduro was sworn into office for a presidential term lasting six years. Maduro insists he won elections in July, however opposition leaders as well as the US government, and many other Western nations claim he was defeated.
“Nicolas Maduro inaugurated an illegitimate presidency in Venezuela in a desperate attempt to seize power,” Blinken declares. “Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency.”
It is worth noting that the United States has already imposed an explicit prohibition on Conviasa. In the year 2020, former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Maduro “depends on Venezuela’s state-owned airline Convisa to fly corrupt regime officials around the world to drum up support for his anti-democratic efforts”.
