Venezuelan electoral body confirms Maduro’s victory in presidential elections
Venezuela's National Electoral Council has confirmed that President Nicolas Maduro won last week's elections with 51.95 per cent of the vote.
The US Department of Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said that it has imposed sanctions against TNK Trading International S.A. (TTI), a subsidiary of Russian oil producer Rosneft, as the latest move to pressure Venezuela.
Steven further said in a statement, “TNK Trading International S.A. is another Rosneft subsidiary brokering the sale and transport of Venezuelan crude oil, which is subject to sanctions,” Xinhua news agency reported.
The sanction came amid increasing competition between the US and Russia over the Venezuela issue.
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The Treasury blacklisted Rosneft Trading S.A. (RTSA), also a subsidiary of the Russian Rosneft Oil Company, and its President Didier Casimiro last month.
Last month, the United States imposed sanctions against a subsidiary of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft over its key role in Venezuela, stepping up international pressure to break leftist President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who recently returned from a global tour that included a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, hailed the new US pressure on Maduro’s regime.
On February 12, Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido returned to the country after a 23-day international tour in which he defied a ban on leaving the country imposed by President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Guaido left Venezuela on January 19 heading to Colombia, several European countries, Canada and the United States, where he met with President Donald Trump, who threatened to “smash” Maduro’s regime.
Last January, Guaido invoked the constitution as head of the congress and declared Maduro a usurper. But a year on Maduro remains in power, despite a US campaign to cut off his government’s sources of financing by imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil sector, and Guaido’s attempts to encourage the military to rebel.
Pompeo told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the impending sanctions over Venezuela when they met at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Abrams said.
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