WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Relations between the United States and Venezuela deteriorated yesterday after Washington imposed visa restrictions on officials involved in alleged human rights abuses and those believed responsible for public corruption in the oil-exporting country.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro slammed the sanctions and called them hypocritical in the latest sign of discord between Washington and Caracas.
In December, US President Barack Obama signed legislation to impose visa sanctions on Venezuelan officials. Congress had previously approved the measure.
“We are sending a clear message that human rights abusers, those who profit from public corruption, and their families are not welcome in the United States,” the US State Department said in a statement. It said it would not identify the targets of its action because of US visa confidentiality regulations.
US diplomats have said the restrictions would be imposed mainly on Venezuelan security officials who put down protests last year in which 43 people died, including demonstrators, government supporters and security officials, and that they could affect immediate family members.
Rights groups say security forces used excessive force to quell the demonstrations. Officials insist they were restrained in the face of hooded protesters hurling rocks and gasoline bombs.
“What human rights are they talking about?,” Maduro told party loyalists in a speech last night.
“They kill black youth in the street with impunity, they persecute and have concentration camps of Central American kids. (In Guantanamo), they have abducted dozens of citizens of the world under no known legal system, submitting them to torture, isolation,” he said.
Venezuela’s socialist government has long accused Washington of seeking to destabilize its rule to gain control of the OPEC country’s oil. Relations worsened after the administration of former US President George W Bush applauded a botched coup in 2002 against the late President Hugo Chavez.
Despite diplomatic tensions, Venezuela has remained one of the top suppliers of oil to the US.
