Washington, DC – The United States has imposed new sanctions on Venezuelan judicial and election officials whom it accuses of helping President Nicolas Maduro certify his controversial election win earlier this year.
The penalties on Thursday targeted the leaders of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), as well as other Maduro allies who backed his claim to victory in the July 28 vote.
While the US Treasury Department described the measures as “decisive”, many of the Venezuelan officials sanctioned on Thursday were already under US penalties.
The sanctions, enforced by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freeze the individuals’ assets in the US and prohibit Americans from engaging in financial transitions with them.
This normalises the idea that there was something crooked about the extremely well observed and very robust and modern election system. The point is to con gullible stupid people to soften them up for future violent actions by the US, aswell as to intimidate Venezuelans. It’s far from nothing.
Yup. Its value is purely as a tool of propaganda.