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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2142 Engrossed in Senate (ES)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2142

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 
 To impose targeted sanctions on persons responsible for violations of 
 human rights of antigovernment protesters in Venezuela, to strengthen 
          civil society in Venezuela, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Venezuela Defense of Human Rights 
and Civil Society Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Central Bank of Venezuela and the National 
        Statistical Institute of Venezuela stated that the annual 
        inflation rate in Venezuela in 2013 was 56.30, the highest 
        level of inflation in the Western Hemisphere and the third 
        highest level of inflation in the world behind South Sudan and 
        Syria.
            (2) The Central Bank of Venezuela and the Government of 
        Venezuela have imposed a series of currency controls that has 
        exacerbated economic problems and, according to the World 
        Economic Forum, has become the most problematic factor for 
        doing business in Venezuela.
            (3) The Central Bank of Venezuela declared that the 
        scarcity index of Venezuela reached 29.4 percent in March 2014, 
        which signifies that fewer than one in 4 basic goods is 
        unavailable at any given time. The Central Bank has not 
        released any information on the scarcity index since that time.
            (4) Since 1999, violent crime in Venezuela has risen 
        sharply and the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, an independent 
        nongovernmental organization, found the national per capita 
        murder rate to be 79 per 100,000 people in 2013.
            (5) The international nongovernmental organization Human 
        Rights Watch recently stated, ``Under the leadership of 
        President Chavez and now President Maduro, the accumulation of 
        power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights 
        guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, censor, 
        and prosecute its critics.''.
            (6) The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 
        of the Department of State maintained that in Venezuela ``the 
        government did not respect judicial independence or permit 
        judges to act according to the law without fear of 
        retaliation'' and ``the government used the judiciary to 
        intimidate and selectively prosecute political, union, 
        business, and civil society leaders who were critical of 
        government policies or actions''.
            (7) The Government of Venezuela has detained foreign 
        journalists and threatened and expelled international media 
        outlets operating in Venezuela, and the international 
        nongovernmental organization Freedom House declared that 
        Venezuela's ``media climate is permeated by intimidation, 
        sometimes including physical attacks, and strong antimedia 
        rhetoric by the government is common''.
            (8) Since February 4, 2014, the Government of Venezuela has 
        responded to antigovernment protests with violence and killings 
        perpetrated by its public security forces.
            (9) In May 2014, Human Rights Watch found that the unlawful 
        use of force perpetrated against antigovernment protesters was 
        ``part of a systematic practice by the Venezuelan security 
        forces''.
            (10) As of September 1, 2014, 41 people had been killed, 
        approximately 3,000 had been arrested unjustly, and more than 
        150 remained in prison and faced criminal charges as a result 
        of antigovernment demonstrations throughout Venezuela.
            (11) Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was arrested on 
        February 18, 2014, in relation to the protests and was unjustly 
        charged with criminal incitement, conspiracy, arson, and 
        property damage. Since his arrest, Lopez has been held in 
        solitary confinement and has been denied 58 out of 60 of his 
        proposed witnesses at his ongoing trial.
            (12) As of September 1, 2014, not a single member of the 
        public security forces of the Government of Venezuela had been 
        held accountable for acts of violence perpetrated against 
        antigovernment protesters.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ANTIGOVERNMENT PROTESTS IN 
              VENEZUELA AND THE NEED TO PREVENT FURTHER VIOLENCE IN 
              VENEZUELA.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the United States aspires to a mutually beneficial 
        relationship with Venezuela based on respect for human rights 
        and the rule of law and a functional and productive 
        relationship on issues of public security, including 
        counternarcotics and counterterrorism;
            (2) the United States supports the people of Venezuela in 
        their efforts to realize their full economic potential and to 
        advance representative democracy, human rights, and the rule of 
        law within their country;
            (3) the chronic mismanagement by the Government of 
        Venezuela of its economy has produced conditions of economic 
        hardship and scarcity of basic goods and foodstuffs for the 
        people of Venezuela;
            (4) the failure of the Government of Venezuela to guarantee 
        minimal standards of public security for its citizens has led 
        the country to become one of the most violent and corrupt in 
        the world;
            (5) the Government of Venezuela continues to take steps to 
        remove checks and balances on the executive, politicize the 
        judiciary, undermine the independence of the legislature 
        through use of executive decree powers, persecute and prosecute 
        its political opponents, curtail freedom of the press, and 
        limit the free expression of its citizens;
            (6) Venezuelans, responding to ongoing economic hardship, 
        high levels of crime and violence, and the lack of basic 
        political rights and individual freedoms, have turned out in 
        demonstrations in Caracas and throughout the country to protest 
        the failure of the Government of Venezuela to protect the 
        political and economic well-being of its citizens; and
            (7) the repeated use of violence perpetrated by the 
        National Guard and security personnel of Venezuela, as well as 
        persons acting on behalf of the Government of Venezuela, 
        against antigovernment protesters that began on February 4, 
        2014, is intolerable and the use of unprovoked violence by 
        protesters is also a matter of serious concern.

SEC. 4. UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD VENEZUELA.

    It is the policy of the United States--
            (1) to support the people of Venezuela in their aspiration 
        to live under conditions of peace and representative democracy 
        as defined by the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the 
        Organization of American States;
            (2) to work in concert with the other member states within 
        the Organization of American States, as well as the countries 
        of the European Union, to ensure the peaceful resolution of the 
        current situation in Venezuela and the immediate cessation of 
        violence against antigovernment protestors;
            (3) to hold accountable government and security officials 
        in Venezuela responsible for or complicit in the use of force 
        in relation to antigovernment protests and similar future acts 
        of violence; and
            (4) to continue to support the development of democratic 
        political processes and independent civil society in Venezuela.

SEC. 5. SANCTIONS ON PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE IN VENEZUELA.

    (a) In General.--The President shall impose the sanctions described 
in subsection (b) with respect to any foreign person, including any 
current or former official of the Government of Venezuela or any person 
acting on behalf of that Government, that the President determines--
            (1) has perpetrated, or is responsible for ordering or 
        otherwise directing, significant acts of violence or serious 
        human rights abuses in Venezuela against persons associated 
        with the antigovernment protests in Venezuela that began on 
        February 4, 2014;
            (2) has ordered or otherwise directed the arrest or 
        prosecution of a person in Venezuela primarily because of the 
        person's legitimate exercise of freedom of expression or 
        assembly; or
            (3) has knowingly materially assisted, sponsored, or 
        provided significant financial, material, or technological 
        support for, or goods or services in support of, the commission 
        of acts described in paragraph (1) or (2).
    (b) Sanctions Described.--
            (1) In general.--The sanctions described in this subsection 
        are the following:
                    (A) Asset blocking.--The exercise of all powers 
                granted to the President by the International Emergency 
                Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the 
                extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions 
                in all property and interests in property of a person 
                determined by the President to be subject to subsection 
                (a) if such property and interests in property are in 
                the United States, come within the United States, or 
                are or come within the possession or control of a 
                United States person.
                    (B) Exclusion from the united states and revocation 
                of visa or other documentation.--In the case of an 
                alien determined by the President to be subject to 
                subsection (a), denial of a visa to, and exclusion from 
                the United States of, the alien, and revocation in 
                accordance with section 221(i) of the Immigration and 
                Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i)), of any visa or 
                other documentation of the alien.
            (2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to 
        violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of 
        paragraph (1)(A) or any regulation, license, or order issued to 
        carry out paragraph (1)(A) shall be subject to the penalties 
        set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the 
        International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to 
        the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act 
        described in subsection (a) of that section.
            (3) Exception relating to importation of goods.--The 
        requirement to block and prohibit all transactions in all 
        property and interests in property under paragraph (1)(A) shall 
        not include the authority to impose sanctions on the 
        importation of goods.
            (4) Exception to comply with united nations headquarters 
        agreement.--Sanctions under paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply to 
        an alien if admitting the alien into the United States is 
        necessary to permit the United States to comply with the 
        Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, 
        signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force 
        November 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the United 
        States, or other applicable international obligations.
    (c) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of sanctions 
under subsection (b) with respect to a person if the President--
            (1) determines that such a waiver is in the national 
        interest of the United States; and
            (2) on or before the date on which the waiver takes effect, 
        submits to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee 
        on Banking Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the 
        Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Financial 
        Services of the House of Representatives a notice of and 
        justification for the waiver.
    (d) Regulatory Authority.--The President shall issue such 
regulations, licenses, and orders as are necessary to carry out this 
section.
    (e) Termination.--The requirement to impose sanctions under this 
section shall terminate on December 31, 2016.
    (f) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Admitted; alien.--The terms ``admitted'' and ``alien'' 
        have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101).
            (2) Financial institution.--The term ``financial 
        institution'' has the meaning given that term in section 5312 
        of title 31, United States Code.
            (3) Foreign person.--The term ``foreign person'' means a 
        person that is not a United States person.
            (4) Good.--The term ``good'' has the meaning given that 
        term in section 16 of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 
        U.S.C. App. 2415) (as continued in effect pursuant to the 
        International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et 
        seq.)).
            (5) Knowingly.--The term ``knowingly'', with respect to 
        conduct, a circumstance, or a result, means that a person has 
        actual knowledge, or should have known, of the conduct, the 
        circumstance, or the result.
            (6) Materially assisted.--The term ``materially assisted'' 
        means the provision of assistance that is significant and of a 
        kind directly relevant to acts described in paragraph (1) or 
        (2) of subsection (a).
            (7) United states person.--The term ``United States 
        person'' means--
                    (A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully 
                admitted for permanent residence to the United States; 
                or
                    (B) an entity organized under the laws of the 
                United States or of any jurisdiction within the United 
                States, including a foreign branch of such an entity.

SEC. 6. REPORT ON BROADCASTING, INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION, AND 
              CIRCUMVENTION TECHNOLOGY DISTRIBUTION IN VENEZUELA.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of 
Governors (in this section referred to as the ``Board'') shall submit 
to Congress a report that includes--
            (1) a thorough evaluation of the governmental, political, 
        and technological obstacles faced by the people of Venezuela in 
        their efforts to obtain accurate, objective, and comprehensive 
        news and information about domestic and international affairs;
            (2) an assessment of current efforts relating to 
        broadcasting, information distribution, and circumvention 
        technology distribution in Venezuela, by the United States 
        Government and otherwise; and
            (3) a strategy for expanding such efforts in Venezuela, 
        including recommendations for additional measures to expand 
        upon current efforts.
    (b) Elements.--The report required by subsection (a) shall 
include--
            (1) an assessment of the current level of Federal funding 
        dedicated to broadcasting, information distribution, and 
        circumvention technology distribution in Venezuela by the Board 
        before the date of the enactment of this Act;
            (2) an assessment of the extent to which the current level 
        and type of news and related programming and content provided 
        by the Voice of America and other sources is addressing the 
        informational needs of the people of Venezuela; and
            (3) recommendations for increasing broadcasting, 
        information distribution, and circumvention technology 
        distribution in Venezuela.

            Passed the Senate December 8, 2014.

            Attest:

                                                             Secretary.
113th CONGRESS

  2d Session

                                S. 2142

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 To impose targeted sanctions on persons responsible for violations of 
 human rights of antigovernment protesters in Venezuela, to strengthen 
          civil society in Venezuela, and for other purposes.
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