AFP, Washington :US President Barack Obama has issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, and placed sanctions on seven officials.The White House says the new set of targeted sanctions excludes the Venezuelan people and any trade relations with the nation, and are instead specifically aimed at government officials the US accuses of violating human rights.”Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of US financial systems,” Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, said in a statement on Monday.”We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalising dissent.”Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro responded by saying the US measures were intended to topple his Socialist government.”President Barack Obama, representing the US imperialist elite, has personally decided to take on the task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to control it,” Maduro said in a national television address.Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry also recalled its top diplomat in the US for “immediate” consultations after the announcement.In Monday’s statement, White House called on Venezuela to release all political prisoners, including “dozens of students”, and warned against blaming the US for its problems.”We’ve seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela,” Earnest said.”These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces.”The White House said the executive order targeted people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, were involved in prohibiting or penalising freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption.The new sanctions were the third set imposed on Venezuelans since December.The seven individuals named in the order would have their property and interests in the US blocked or frozen and they would be denied entry into the US.American citizens would also be prohibited from doing business with them.Meanwhile, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro paraded the seven officials sanctioned by the US government on national television on Monday, hailing them as “heroes” and appointing one of them as the new interior minister.”I congratulate them,” Maduro said in a live TV address, flanked by his Cabinet and the seven officials. “It’s an honor” to be on the US sanctions list, he said.The president named national intelligence head Gustavo Gonzalez, whom Washington accuses of complicity in violence against anti-government protesters, as new interior minister. It was not immediately clear if Gonzalez would occupy both posts.
