Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas

The United States Restricts Travel for Top Venezuelan Officials



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The U.S. has issued a travel ban for a list of unnamed Venezuelan officials who are accused of involvement in human rights abuses after the Venezuelan military and police cracked down on anti-government protests earlier this year. 

The ban affects 24 high-ranking officials from Venezuela, ranging from cabinet members and senior judiciary members to members of the military and the police. Venezuelan Foreign Minister and former Vice President Elías Jaua called the move “desperate” and a “reprisal… against the role that Venezuela plays in a new world, in an independent Latin America.”

Diplomatic tensions between the United States and Venezuela had already worsened after a former general and aid to Hugo Chávez, Hugo Carvajal—accused by the United States of drug trafficking and supporting left-wing guerrillas in Colombia—was released from Aruba on Monday. U.S. concerns that Caracas had pressured the Dutch government to release the formal general were confirmed by the chief prosecutor of Aruba, Peter Blanken, but Blanken emphasized that Carvajal was released because of “diplomatic immunity,” and not because of the “actions against Aruba from the Venezuelan government.”

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the executive secretary of the opposition’s Mesa de la Unidad (Democratic Unity Roundtable–MUD), Ramón Aveledo, resigned from his post on Tuesday, citing the need to renew the opposition movement. Aveledo, who had lead MUD for five years, was responsible for uniting Venezuela’s fractious opposition. Earlier this year, at least 43 people were killed during protests led by students and the political opposition.

In the 2014 Summer issue of Americas Quarterly, Boris Muñoz examines the challenges that Venezuela is facing in his article, Venezuela: How Long Can This Go On?



Tags: Hugo Carvajal, Ramón Aveledo, Venezuela
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