Venezuela passes law punishing support for international sanctions with twenty-five to thirty years in prison

The Parliament of Venezuela, where the government has an absolute majority, adopted, Thursday, November 28, a law punishing with twenty-five to thirty years in prison support for international sanctions targeting the regime of Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election in July is contested.

“Any person who encourages, incites, requests, invokes, favors, facilitates, supports or participates in the adoption of coercive measures (…) will be punished with a prison sentence of twenty-five to thirty years.indicates one of the articles of the law, which also provides for fines exceeding one million dollars, and penalties of ineligibility.

“It’s a law” pour “bring order and set limits to the attitude of traitor to the fatherland” of a small group “who turns into servants”said Mr. Maduro.

Called the “Simon Bolivar Liberator Act”, it responds to a bill adopted by the United States House of Representatives on November 18 to strengthen sanctions against Venezuela.

This bill, which must still receive the green light from the Senate and the signature of the President of the United States to come into force, received the acronym Bolivar – for banning operations and leases with illegitimate venezuelan authoritarian regime (“prohibition of operations and leases with the illegitimate Venezuelan authoritarian regime”) –, and prohibits the American government from signing contracts with people doing business with that of Nicolas Maduro, whom it describes as“illegitimate”.

Economic sanctions

“They brazenly added the acronym Bolivar to the law, offending the greatest genius in American history, who dedicated his life to defeating imperialism and colonialism”responded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, calling the bill“criminal attack”.

In 2019, Washington, in the wake of the already contested re-election of Mr. Maduro in 2018, had significantly tightened its economic sanctions against Venezuela, including an oil embargo on this country which has among the largest crude oil reserves on the planet. .

In addition, some 180 Venezuelan officials are subject to individual sanctions, with the freezing of any assets held in the United States and the ban on any financial transactions through banks or financial institutions.

Nicolas Maduro was proclaimed winner of the Venezuelan presidential election by the National Electoral Council – considered subservient to power. The opposition assures that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, now in exile in Spain, won with more than 67% of the votes. The death toll from the repression of the post-election crisis stands at 28 dead, 200 injured and 2,400 arrests.