WASHINGTON: The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA on Monday in the latest effort to ramp up pressure on the country's President Nicolas Maduro.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions prevented Maduro from diverting more resources from the crisis-damaged country until control in Caracas could be transferred to an interim government or new democratically-elected government.

However, Mnuchin said PDVSA's US-based subsidiary Citgo would be able to continue operations, as long as its earnings were deposited into a blocked account in the United States.

Washington "is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela's tragic decline," Mnuchin announced at the White House.

"We call on our allies and partners to join the United States in recognizing interim president Guaido and blocking Maduro from being able to access funds."

Citgo "will be able to continue to operate provided that any funds that would otherwise go to the oil company instead will go into a blocked account in the United States."

The latest sanctions on PDVSA, which has been a "vehicle for corruption...will help prevent further diverting of Venezuela's assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela," Mnuchin said.

"The path to sanctions relief for PDVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the interim president or a subsequent, democratically elected government."

The United States will issue temporary licenses to ensure US, Caribbean and European refineries that rely on Venezuelan crude can keep buying PDVSA oil but he said many had been taking steps to find other sources.

Speaking together with Justice Department officials announcing the indictments, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said they were "wholly separate from our trade negotiations with China."

However, he added: "Commerce will continue to work with our interagency partners to protect US national security interests." </s> The Trump administration imposed sanctions Monday on the state-owned oil company of Venezuela, a potentially critical economic move aimed at increasing pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to cede power to the opposition.

National security adviser John Bolton and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the measures against the company. They are also aimed at boosting Maduro's rival, opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom the administration recognized last week as Venezuela's legitimate leader. The sanctions will include a freeze on any assets the firm may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with it.

"The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela's tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaido, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people's efforts to restore their democracy," Mnuchin said.

"Today's designation of PDVSA will help prevent further diverting of Venezuela's assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela. The path to sanctions relief for PDVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government," he said.

PDSVA is the acronym for the state-owned oil company.

Senator Marco Rubio, a vocal critic of Maduro who has called for such sanctions, welcomed the move even before it was announced.

"The Maduro crime family has used PDVSA to buy and keep the support of many military leaders," Rubio said. "The oil belongs to the Venezuelan people, and therefore the money PDVSA earns from its export will now be returned to the people through their legitimate constitutional government."

The sanctions will not likely affect consumer prices at the gas pump but will hit oil refiners, particularly those on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. have declined steadily over the years, falling particularly sharply over the past decade as its production plummeted amid its long economic and political crisis. The U.S. imported less than 500,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude and petroleum products in 2017, down from more than 1.2 million barrels a day in 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Still, Venezuela has consistently been the third- or fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, and any disruption of imports could be costly for refiners. In 2017, the most recent year that data were available, Venezuela accounted for about 6 percent of U.S. crude imports.

Valero and Citgo are among the largest importers of Venezuelan crude.

But Venezuela is very reliant on the U.S. for its oil revenue. The country sends 41 percent of its oil exports to the U.S. Critically, U.S. refiners are among the few customers that pay cash to Venezuela for its oil. That's because Venezuela's oil shipments to China and Russia are usually taken as repayment for billions of dollars in debts.

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report. </s> WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 companies for narcotics trafficking activity, as it seeks to increase pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Of the newly sanctioned companies, 16 are based in Venezuela and four in Panama. They are owned or controlled by the three individuals, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement on its website.

“Systemic corruption and a collapse in the rule of law are defining features of Venezuela’s government,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“We will deny corrupt Venezuelan regime officials access to the U.S. financial system as we work with international partners to support the Venezuelan people in restoration of democracy and a return to prosperity.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to discuss the sanctions in a speech to the Organization of American States on Monday, an aide to Pence said.

Pence is also expected to call for a delay in Venezuela’s presidential election, set for May 20, in his speech, the aide said.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maduro, himself subject to sanctions last year, regularly laughs off Washington’s disapproval and blames the U.S. “empire” for his country’s economic woes, saying it is trying to undermine his administration.

Pence previously has urged the international community to increase pressure on Maduro, who the United States blames for a deep recession and hyperinflation in Venezuela that have caused shortages of food and medicine and a flood of migrants into neighboring countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has already imposed some financial and individual sanctions on Maduro’s government, accusing senior officials of rights abuses and corruption.

The Trump administration has also been weighing new oil-related sanctions on a Venezuelan oil services company and on insurance coverage for tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

Oil prices rose to their highest levels since late 2014 on Monday, boosted by fresh troubles for Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] and a looming decision on whether the United States will reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. </s> Action Intensifies Pressure on Maduro and Regime Insiders, Demonstrates U.S. Commitment to Leverage Economic Pressure to Support the Venezuelan People’s Transition to Democracy

Washington – Today the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. PdVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company and a primary source of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency, to include U.S. dollars and Euros.

“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin. “Today’s designation of PdVSA will help prevent further diverting of Venezuela’s assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela. The path to sanctions relief for PdVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government.”

As with previous OFAC designations of certain Venezuelan officials and their supporters, U.S. sanctions need not be permanent. Sanctions are intended to change behavior. The United States has made it clear that we will consider lifting sanctions for those who take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions to support democratic order and combat corruption in Venezuela, including PdVSA.

As Venezuela’s state owned oil company, PdVSA has long been a vehicle for corruption. A variety of schemes have been designed to embezzle billions of dollars from PdVSA for the personal gain of corrupt Venezuelan officials and businessmen. For example, a 2014 currency exchange scheme was designed to embezzle and launder around $600 million from PdVSA, money obtained through bribery and fraud. By May 2015, the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount, to $1.2 billion embezzled from PdVSA. Abraham Edgardo Ortega, a Venezuelan national who was PdVSA’s executive director of financial planning, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in the billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds embezzled from PdVSA. In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors have alleged that, from 2011 to 2013, senior Government of Venezuela and PdVSA officials, including Nervis Villalobos, the former Venezuelan vice minister of energy; Rafael Reiter, who worked as PdVSA’s head of security and loss prevention; and Luis Carlos de Leon, a former official at a state-run electric company, sought bribes and kickbacks from vendors in exchange for helping them secure PdVSA contracts and gain priority over other vendors for outstanding invoices during its liquidity crisis.

Today’s action designating PdVSA follows a determination by Secretary Mnuchin pursuant to E.O. 13850 that persons operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy may be subject to sanctions.

Concurrent with this action, OFAC is issuing general licenses that authorize certain transactions and activities related to PdVSA and its subsidiaries within specified timeframes.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of PdVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

For additional information about the methods that Venezuelan senior political figures, their associates, and front persons use to move and hide corrupt proceeds, including how they try to exploit the U.S. financial system and real estate market, please refer to FinCEN’s advisories FIN-2017-A006, “Advisory on Widespread Public Corruption in Venezuela,” and FIN-2017-A003, “Advisory to Financial Institutions and Real Estate Firms and Professionals.”

Identifying information and General Licenses relating to today’s announcement.

#### </s> WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 companies for narcotics trafficking activity, as it seeks to increase pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Of the newly sanctioned companies, 16 are based in Venezuela and four in Panama. They are owned or controlled by the three individuals, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement on its website.

“We will deny corrupt Venezuelan regime officials access to the U.S. financial system as we work with international partners to support the Venezuelan people in restoration of democracy and a return to prosperity,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also called for the Organization of American States to suspend Venezuela’s membership in the 35-nation group.

Pence, in a speech to the OAS, urged Maduro to suspend elections scheduled for May 20, saying they would be a “fraud” and a “sham.” He also urged Venezuela’s neighbors in the hemisphere to step up their own measures against Caracas.

“The time has come, first and foremost, to cut off Venezuela’s corrupt leaders from laundering money through your financial systems. Secondly, the time has come to enact visa restrictions that prevent Venezuela’s leaders from entering your nations. And finally, we call on all freedom-loving nations across our hemisphere to hold Maduro accountable for destroying Venezuelans’ democracy,” Pence said.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Maduro, himself subject to sanctions last year, regularly laughs off Washington’s disapproval and blames the U.S. “empire” for his country’s economic woes, saying it is trying to undermine his administration.

Pence previously has urged the international community to increase pressure on Maduro, who the United States blames for a deep recession and hyperinflation in Venezuela that have caused shortages of food and medicine and a flood of migrants into neighboring countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has already imposed some financial and individual sanctions on Maduro’s government, accusing senior officials of rights abuses and corruption.

The Trump administration has also been weighing new oil-related sanctions on a Venezuelan oil services company and on insurance coverage for tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

Oil prices rose to their highest levels since late 2014 on Monday, boosted by fresh troubles for Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] and a looming decision on whether the United States will reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s development bank, Bandes, a day after the Trump administration warned there would be consequences for the arrest by Venezuelan authorities of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s top aide.

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday it was slapping the sanctions on the Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela, including its subsidiaries in Uruguay and Bolivia.

Congress head Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January, has accused Bandes of being used by officials of the government of President Nicolas Maduro to steal funds.

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.

“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.

The U.S. 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.

Uruguay has stayed neutral on Venezuela’s political crisis and has called for dialogue.

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.

The sanctions freeze assets belonging to the bank and its subsidiaries, and prevent U.S. citizens from any dealings with Bandes. They follow a raft of other sanctions imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in recent months against Maduro, top government officials, and state oil firm PDVSA.

Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton tweeted: “BANDES bank is to Venezuela’s financial sector what PDVSA is to its oil sector. This action will severely affect any attempted currency movements by Maduro and his cronies moving forward. Do not test the resolve of this Administration.”

Maduro’s government accuses Washington of waging a “economic war” to force them from power and has said that the sanctions only harm regular Venezuelans. </s> (WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration imposed sanctions Monday on the state-owned oil company of Venezuela, a potentially critical economic move aimed at increasing pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to cede power to the opposition in the South American nation.

Maduro’s increasingly isolated government would lose access to one of its most important sources of income and foreign currency along with around $7 billion in assets of Petroleos De Venezuela S.A. under the sanctions announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and national security adviser John Bolton.

The move follows the unusual decision by the U.S. and other nations last week to recognize the opposition leader of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the interim president of Venezuela instead of Maduro, who was re-elected last year in an election widely seen as fraudulent. The once prosperous nation has been in an economic collapse, with several million citizens fleeing to neighboring countries.

“We have continued to expose the corruption of Maduro and his cronies, and today’s action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the Venezuelan people,” Bolton said at a White House news conference.

Bolton said he expects Monday’s actions against PDVSA — the acronym for the state-owned oil company —will result in more than $11 billion in lost export proceeds over the next year.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that the new sanctions do not target the people of Venezuela and will not affect humanitarian assistance, including medicine and medical devices that are “desperately needed after years of economic destruction under Maduro’s rule.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a vocal critic of Maduro who has called for such sanctions, welcomed the move even before it was announced.

“The Maduro crime family has used PDVSA to buy and keep the support of many military leaders,” Rubio said. “The oil belongs to the Venezuelan people, and therefore the money PDVSA earns from its export will now be returned to the people through their legitimate constitutional government.”

The sanctions will not likely affect consumer prices at the gas pump but will hit oil refiners, particularly those on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. have declined steadily over the years, falling particularly sharply over the past decade as its production plummeted amid its long economic and political crisis. The U.S. imported less than 500,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude and petroleum products in 2017, down from more than 1.2 million barrels a day in 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Still, Venezuela has consistently been the third- or fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, and any disruption of imports could be costly for refiners. In 2017, the most recent year that data were available, Venezuela accounted for about 6 percent of U.S. crude imports.

Valero and Citgo are among the largest importers of Venezuelan crude.

Mnuchin said the Treasury Department also took steps Monday to authorize certain transactions and activities with PDVSA. He said Citgo assets in the United States will be allowed to continue to operate — provided that any funds that would otherwise go to the state-owned oil company be sent to a blocked account in the United States.

Venezuela is very reliant on the U.S. for its oil revenue. The country sends 41 percent of its oil exports to the U.S. Critically, U.S. refiners are among the few customers that pay cash to Venezuela for its oil. That’s because Venezuela’s oil shipments to China and Russia are usually taken as repayment for billions of dollars in debts. </s> The moves were aimed at intensifying pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, who was re-elected last year in a contest widely seen as fraudulent.

Guaido proclaimed himself president last week, but without a source of revenue or control of the military, he faces difficult odds in assuming the post, despite support across most of the Western Hemisphere.

Guaido, who has not yet appointed a Cabinet, faces the intricate legal challenge of nominating new leadership for PDVSA and its subsidiaries, including Citgo Petroleum, who would manage the companies during a transition.

The White House's measures to freeze PDVSA's U.S. assets, including proceeds from oil exports, and limit the company's transactions are an attempt to largely cut off Maduro's access to oil revenue that accounts for most of the country's income in hard currency.

U.S. refineries in the United States can receive Venezuelan oil already paid for and currently at sea, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

"If the people in Venezuela want to continue to sell us oil, as long as the money goes into blocked accounts we will continue to take it. Otherwise, will we not be buying it," Mnuchin told reporters in Washington on Monday.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the sanctions would block $7 billion in PDVSA's assets "plus over $11 billion in lost export proceeds over the next year."

It is unclear if Venezuela will continue selling oil to customers in the United States.

Venezuela exports about 500,000 barrels of oil daily to the United States, mostly to Citgo and refineries owned by Valero Energy Corp and Chevron Corp. The country's production has dropped in recent years to about 1.4 million barrels a day because of economic mismanagement and lack of investment.

Maduro remains in control of the country because of support from the military, despite massive protests against his government amid an economic crisis that has caused millions to flee the country. Many people are going hungry, while inflation has skyrocketed and left basic goods unaffordable.

'TRYING TO DO SOMETHING'

The sanctions do not prohibit deals between PDVSA and major U.S. oil-companies operating in Venezuela, including Chevron, Halliburton Co and Schlumberger NV. It does, however, prevent U.S. firms from exporting certain oil products Venezuela needs to blend with its own crude for sale elsewhere.

Attempting to redirect funds to Guaido's team could give him maneuverability in the short term as appointing new boards at PDVSA and Citgo could take a long time, according to experts.

Frank Holder, the head of Berkeley Research Group's Latin American practice, said Guaido could face difficulties in appointing a Citgo board against the wishes of its parent.

But Guaido's team may try a number of things, even if they are unlikely to work, because "politically it shows he is trying to do something, that he has power," Holder said.

The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela and PDVSA in 2017 that prevented Citgo from repatriating dividends to its parent company. Citgo had about $500 million in cash at the end of September, according to a creditor who spoke to Reuters last week, and $900 million in available credit.

Citgo also faces a July deadline to refinance its revolving credit, a task that could be delayed because of sanctions affecting the subsidiary's ability to access to credit. </s> WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on state-owned Venezuelan development bank Bandes in response to the arrest of an aide to opposition leader Juan Guaido, saying the government had used it to prop itself up by moving assets abroad.

"(President Nicolas) Maduro and his enablers have distorted the original purpose of the bank ... as part of a desperate attempt to hold onto power," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the action.
The United States Department of the Treasury imposes sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, which accounts for much of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency.