Trump Imposes New Curbs on Venezuela to Force Maduro Out
Trump Imposes New Curbs on Venezuela in Bid to Pressure Maduro
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump imposed further sanctions on Venezuela, freezing the government’s assets in the U.S. and adding immigration restrictions in a move aimed at stepping up pressure on the regime of Nicolas Maduro.
Property belonging to the Venezuelan government “may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in,” Trump said in an executive order released late Monday by the White House. The U.S. will also block entry into the U.S. by any Venezuelan citizen determined to have assisted or acted on Maduro’s behalf.
Together, the moves put Venezuela on the same footing as countries like North Korea and Iran that the U.S. has sought to isolate from the rest of the world, and threaten nearly any company or person who deals with the country with exile from the international financial system.
The measures “increase the business risk for anybody that has any prospect of doing business in the United States, if it keeps doing business the government of Venezuela,” National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters in Lima on Tuesday. “That includes any foreign entity, government, corporation, person who contributes to keeping the Maduro regime in power.”
While the new order is sweeping in scope, it’s unclear whether the new measures will have a significant impact since the vast majority of the Venezuelan government’s income derives from oil and gold -- two areas where Maduro’s regime already faces heavy sanctions.
Bolton declined to say how Trump’s latest move will affect companies such as Chevron Corp., which was just granted a three-month waiver allowing it to continue producing oil and gas in the country.
“Chevron has received a limited new license for 90 days and we’re going to be continuously evaluating all activities in Venezuela,” Bolton said. “I would say to the board of directors and shareholders of any American company, is it in your corporate culture to engage in commercial activity that supports a brutal dictatorship?”
Chevron is reviewing the Trump order, said Kent Robertson, a company spokesman. “We continue to believe that we are a constructive presence in the country,” he said via email.
Unsuccessful Efforts
Trump’s order follows months of unsuccessful efforts to pressure Maduro into leaving office. Those include the U.S. recognition of Juan Guaido, the leader of Venezuela’s national assembly, as the country’s legitimate leader, and the imposition of sanctions on more than 100 Venezuelan individuals and entities including the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
Last week, Trump told reporters he was considering a blockade or quarantine of Venezuela. And White House officials have warned that Maduro had only a short window to voluntarily leave power or face stricter measures.
Bolton is in Lima for a conference of nations that have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who’s also expected to attend the meeting in Peru, last week outlined plans to rebuild Venezuela’s financial institutions and infrastructure.
More than 50 countries including the U.S. have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president following Maduro’s 2018 re-election, which was tainted by high voter abstention and claims of fraud. Guaido in April urged China, the world’s largest oil importer, to also abandon support for Maduro.
The threat of sanctions from the U.S. will likely deter many individuals and companies from doing business with the Venezuelan government going forward. Yet it’s unclear whether countries with closer relations with Caracas -- including China and Russia -- will follow suit, potentially dulling the full impact of the new measures on the Venezuelan government.
Read more: Guaido’s Appointments to PDVSA Board Found Valid by U.S. Judge
“It’s clear that the United States’ government and its allies are betting on the failure of political negotiations taking place in Venezuela,” the nation’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in an emailed statement. “They fear what might come of them.”
Maduro’s government and opposition officials representing Guaido started negotiations in May, sponsored by Norway, seeking to find a solution to Venezuela’s political and economic crisis.
Francisco Rodriguez, Torino Capital chief economist, said Trump’s order essentially formalized a “a de facto ban on transactions between U.S. persons and the Venezuelan government.” Most Venezuelan assets outside the country, he said, had already been seized by Guaido’s allies.
Still, he said, the order could make financial institutions even more wary of doing business in Venezuela and stir concerns about secondary sections with implications for the energy market.
“If the U.S. effectively levies the threat of secondary sanctions on oil sales to India, that could lead Venezuela to lose one of its two most important remaining oil markets,” Rodriguez said.
The new restrictions announced Monday contain some humanitarian exemptions. The measures will permit transactions that provide the Venezuelan people with “articles such as food, clothing, and medicine intended to be used to relieve human suffering,” according to the executive order.
On Monday, Bolton said Maduro’s government is feeling the pressure of U.S. sanctions, and expressed optimism about prospects for a change in government that will make way for new elections. The U.S. is opposed to elections while Maduro remains in power, he said.
In a series of tweets late Monday, Guaido praised the U.S. move.
“Anyone who wants to benefit from the crisis will be driven away,” he wrote. “Every person, company, institution or nation that intends to do business with the regime will be, for the purposes of international justice, collaborating and supporting a dictatorship and will be subject to sanction.”
--With assistance from Patricia Laya, Alex Vasquez and Dan Murtaugh.
To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;John Quigley in Lima at jquigley8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, ;Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte
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