The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on family members and associates of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as Washington increases pressure on the Venezuelan president.
The US Treasury Department, in a statement, said it had imposed sanctions on seven people it said were linked to Maduro and his wife. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused them of “propping up Nicolás Maduro’s rogue narco-state.”
“We will not allow Venezuela to continue flooding our nation with deadly drugs,” Bessent said.
“Maduro and his criminal accomplices threaten the peace and stability of our hemisphere. The Trump administration will continue to attack the networks that underpin his illegitimate dictatorship.”
Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maduro and his government have vehemently denied ties to crime and say the United States seeks to overthrow him to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
In recent months, US President Donald Trump’s administration has been increasing pressure on Maduro, executing a large-scale military buildup in the southern Caribbean.
It has carried out attacks on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the region, seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, and declared a “blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
Trump has also repeatedly said that ground attacks will soon occur in Venezuela.
Friday’s action sanctioned relatives of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, nephew of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores. The United States says Malpica Flores was involved in a corruption plot at the state oil company PDVSA. He was sanctioned by Washington last week.
His mother, sister of Maduro’s wife, as well as his father, his sister, his wife and his daughter were sanctioned on Friday.
On Friday, the Treasury also extended a general license protecting Venezuelan refinery Citgo Petroleum from creditors until February 3 and which was set to expire on December 20. It was a much shorter extension than the last one the Treasury issued in June, which had a duration of six months.
Washington has protected the Houston-based company from creditors in recent years, even amid a court-organized stock auction of its parent company, PDV Holding. The license temporarily prohibits transactions with a bond issued in Venezuela collateralized by Citgo shares.
In November, a US judge authorized the sale of shares in Citgo Petroleum’s parent company to an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, following his approval of a $5.9 billion bid by the company in a judicially organized auction to pay creditors linked to Venezuela.
The sale order, which is pending approval by the Treasury Department, was the last major legal step to conclude a two-year auction aimed at paying up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations.
