US President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping sanctions on the Venezuelan government, freezing its assets in the US and barring transactions with it in the latest attempt by Washington to force President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
It is the first US asset freeze against an entire government in the western hemisphere in more than 30 years, but stopped short of a full trade embargo of the kind imposed on Cuba by excluding Venezuela’s private sector.
Venezuelan foreign ministry denounced the latest sanctions, calling them another serious aggression by Trump administration through arbitrary economic terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”