US blacklists Venezuela bank after arrest of Guaido aide
Latest sanctions hit commercial banks
WASHINGTON/CARACAS: The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on Venezuela’s development bank, Bandes, a day after the Trump administration wa-rned there would be consequences for the arrest by Venezuelan authorities of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s top aide.
The US Treasury said it was slapping the sanctions on Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela, including its subsidiaries in Uruguay and Bolivia.
It also imposed sanctions on state-owned Venezuelan commercial banks, including Banco de Venezuela and Banco Bicentenario.
In a statement, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said it “energetically rejects the unilateral, coercive, arbitrary and illegal measures” taken by the Trump administration. It said the sanctions would affect millions of Venezuelan people and companies who use the banks.
Congress head Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January, has accused Bandes of being used by President Nicolas Maduro’s government to funnel money outside Venezuela.
The White House said in a statement it was committed to preventing Maduro’s government from stealing Venezuela’s resources and from arresting those pushing for political change.
Guaido’s chief of staff, Roberto Marrero, was detained in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, sparking vows of reprisals from the United States, which along with most Western countries backs Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
“The United States will not tolerate the arrest of peaceful democratic actors, including members of the democratically-elected Venezuelan National Assembly and those Venezuelans working with interim President Juan Guaido,” the White House said in a statement.
In a tweet on Friday evening, Guaido said he had been informed that Marrero was being transported from jail to court. He demanded Marrero be freed, calling the judges who would hear his case “complicit with the dictatorship.”
Venezuelan authorities said on Thursday that an arms cache had been seized from Marrero’s house and accused him of planning attacks against political figures. Guaido said guns had been planted by intelligence agents.
The US Treasury said Maduro tried to move $1 billion out of Venezuela through Banco Bandes Uruguay in early 2019 as he came under increasing pressure from the United States and other countries in the region to step down.
Bandes has received billions of dollars over the past decade from the China Development Bank, in exchange for oil, which the Venezuelan government used to fund infrastructure projects.
Uruguay has stayed neutral on Venezuela’s political crisis and has called for dialogue, while China, Russia and regional ally Cuba have backed Maduro.
But the sanctions on Bandes could test Beijing’s ties with Caracas, since it would impede Venezuela from restructuring its $20 billion debt with China, opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado said on Friday.
“That makes it even less likely that China will step in to save Maduro,” Alvarado wrote on Twitter. Guaido and his allies have repeatedly argued that China and Russia are more likely to collect on their loans to Venezuela with Maduro out of office.
Congress head Guaido has accused Bandes of being used by President Nicolas Maduro’s government to funnel money outside Venezuela