The announcement came as Washington slapped Venezuela with another round of sanctions
The US has increased its reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $25 million, up from the $15 million offered in 2020, the US Treasury announced on Friday. The move comes as part of a broader set of measures, including sanctions and travel restrictions, targeting officials associated with the Venezuelan government.
Washington has refused to recognize Maduro as the winner of the July 2024 presidential election, calling the vote rigged and undemocratic. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed last August that the US possessed “overwhelming evidence” suggesting that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was the actual winner of the election.
On Friday, the day of Maduro’s inauguration, the Treasury also accused the Venezuelan government of “repression and subversion of democracy.”
In addition to the increased bounty on Maduro, the US announced a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and a $15 million reward for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez. The Treasury accused them of playing a role in “repression and human rights abuses.”
Other Venezuelan officials, including the president of the state-owned oil company PDVSA and the transportation minister, as well as a number of high-ranking military and police officers, were also sanctioned.
In December, the head of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit at the US embassy in Colombia, Francisco Palmieri, set Caracas an ultimatum, demanding that Maduro step down before his inauguration in January and recognize Gonzalez as the winner.
“If he stays, things will only get worse for Venezuela,” Palmieri stated.
Caracas did not respond to the ultimatum. Nor has it commented on the latest round of US sanctions. Maduro, a staunch critic of US foreign policy, slammed Washington earlier this week for pushing for regime change.
The US is funding “corrupt and delinquent” former leaders across Latin America to harm Caracas, the president said.
“Enough of interventionism, enough of extremism, enough of Lima groups,” he said, taking special aim at the Lima Group, an informal pact of 12 governments backing the US policy of isolating Venezuela since 2017.