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U.S. Levies Sanctions on Venezuela's Maduro as He Launches New Power Grab

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is celebrating another so-called win for the Socialist Party in Caracas, even as the U.S. levies sanctions against him for actions that could take the country into a dictatorship.

Maduro called the country to vote Sunday on a constitutional assembly that would give him virtually unlimited powers, allowing him to rewrite Venezuela's Constitution and override the country's Congress.

He held the vote even though 98 percent of more than seven million voters had rejected the idea of making constitutional changes earlier this month.

In response, the U.S. put Maduro on a list of Venezuelan officials who are under financial sanction. The move freezes Maduro's assets in the U.S. and prohibits U.S. companies from doing business with him.

Political opponents say Maduro is an aspiring dictator, and that's why he took this step to give himself even more control over the country.

"The US stands with the people in the face of this oppression," President Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said.

The Trump administration did not take the additional step of putting sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry, though it promised wider action if Maduro does not pull back.

"The president is not going to advertise what he's going to do in the future. All options are on the table," said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

Opposition leaders are urging Venezuelans to protest today.

They had called for a boycott of Sunday's vote. Across the country's capital of Caracas, a city of more than 2 million people, dozens of polling places were virtually empty Sunday.

Venezuelan electoral authorities say more than eight million people voted for the assembly. But one well-respected independent analysis put the number at 3.6 million.

"If it wasn't a tragedy ... if it didn't mean more crisis, the electoral council's number would almost make you laugh," opposition leader Freddy Guevara said on Twitter. Maduro has threatened that one of the constitutional assembly's first acts would be jailing Guevara.

Sunday's election comes as many residents are at a breaking point after suffering for months from food shortages and heavy-handed government control.

Four months of political upheaval in Venezuela has left at least 125 dead and wounded nearly 2,000. Many others have been arrested as well.

Several nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Britain and the United States said they would not recognize Sunday's vote.

The Trump administration again promised "strong and swift actions" against Venezuelan officials, including the 545 participants in the constitutional assembly, many of them low-ranking Socialist Party members.

 

 

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