US-led sanctions on Venezuela set to increase with European assistance

The US government is alleged to be working with European leaders in a bid to expand the list of sanctions currently in place against Venezuela.

The allegations stem from comments made last May by US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, that Washington was drawing up a “very robust list” of additional sanctions against the Latin American nation, partly in response to alleged human rights abuses.

“The U.S. Administration is watching with increasing concern the deterioration of the humanitarian and human rights situation in Venezuela,” claimed a representative of the US State Department, Tarek Fahmy, at a press conference in Madrid, last month. “When we act alone, we can only act under our jurisdiction, but if sanctions are supported by partners, they can be effective,” he added.

The Venezuelan government maintains such a statement alludes to redoubled efforts on the part of the Trump administration to co-opt European allies into a united front against the beleaguered Presidency of Nicolás Maduro.

Existing sanctions already include around twenty individuals directly associated with the Maduro administration, including the President himself, something that has strained relations between the two countries as Venezuela continues to experience economic and social turmoil.

The US insists such measures are necessarily in light of a recent and controversial decision by the Venezuelan Supreme Court to suspend the legislative authority of the opposition-controlled National Assembly The Supreme Court maintains such a measure was necessary due to attempts by the Assembly to sabotage budgetary reform, with the Court soon returning legislative functions to the Assembly. Foreign sanctions, however, remain in place.

Venezuela has continued to witness violent protests from an increasingly assertive opposition movement aimed at removing the Maduro from office. Some fifty five people are believed to have been killed and around a thousand injured in disturbances last May, with supporters of the President claiming opponents are threatened by the impending convening of the National Constituent Assembly, a body some regard as a legitimate new form of popular rule. Detractors claim such a body will be entirely under the control of the President and thus unlawful.

Venezuela has also been the recent target of a US-led resolution at a June meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS). The motion, which ultimately failed, denounced Caracas for an alleged failure to protect internationally recognised human rights norms, particularly in regards to the right to freedom of speech and assembly.

“We want to reach a unified resolution,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, at an OAS news conference. “(We need) to defend the values that unite us…in this specific case it’s the defence of representative democracy as the only form of government that should prevail in the American continent.”

The motion was introduced just prior to additional controversy over President Trump’s alleged plans to increase the prison population of the US facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. High-level members of staff, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats are believed to have visited the site on July 7th. Sessions is a long-term proponent of the prison, having previously stated it works “marvellously well” as a “very fine place for holding these kinds of dangerous criminals.”

Human rights groups, however, have long cited myriad problems relating to lack of legal representation, due process and also the alleged torture of multiple inmates. President Trump laid great emphasis on the use of the prison during his initial campaign for the White House, claiming he would “load up” the facility “with some bad dudes”.