Two days before presidential elections in Venezuela, the Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions against a powerful governing party politician, accusing him of drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering and embezzling government money.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro along with more than 50 Venezuelan nationals are considered high risk for laundering money and financing terrorism, according to an advisory issued by Panama's economy and finance ministry.
Venezuela's National Assembly, with opposition majority, denounced on Wednesday the “undue” use of electoral material, noting that official papers that belongs to the National Electoral Council (CNE) was found in gambling centers to print bet vouchers and presented its final report about the investigation into the case of the ex-rebel agent, Oscar Pérez.
The elections are not ordered or decreed, they are called. And is that the Venezuelan regime, with this new nonsense, does nothing but reveal the murder, not only of people who think differently in such atrocious ways as executing them extrajudicially -with a complete army against half dozen of people- to silence and chastise, but also murder of fundamental democratic and republican principles while trampling the country's constitution.
Among the sanctioned are the number two of the government, Diosdado Cabello; Néstor Reverol, minister of Justice and Maikel Moreno, president of the Supreme Court of Justice. These are new individual sanctions, which include the freezing of assets and the prohibition to travel to the countries of the European bloc to at least seven senior Venezuelan officials.
Venezuela's recently ousted chief prosecutor accused President Nicolas Maduro and several allies on Wednesday of participating in acts of corruption, saying she would turn over proof that would help other countries prosecute. Venezuela's government quickly fired back, accusing Luisa Ortega Diaz of grave moral and ethical infractions.
Venezuela’s high court issued an arrest order for the ousted chief prosecutor’s husband on Thursday after authorities accused him of running a US$6 million extortion ring, a ruling promptly denounced by government critics as a move aimed at silencing opponents of President Nicolas Maduro.
The newly installed constitutional assembly ousted Venezuela's defiant chief prosecutor on Saturday, a sign that President Nicolas Maduro's embattled government intends to move swiftly against critics and consolidate power amid a fast-moving political crisis.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri said Friday that we have come from years of isolation and bad relations with almost all countries except Venezuela and Iran. He added that this year we have experienced a Copernican change in that sense.
Diosdado Cabello, considered one of the three most powerful persons in Venezuela called Argentine president Mauricio Macri a coward, described the Argentine ambassador in Caracas as an enemy and suggested that if he had any dignity left he should pack his suitcase and leave Venezuela.