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U.S. Imposes First Economic Sanctions Against Venezuela

A demonstrator dressed as Venezuelan independence hero Simón Bolivar is silhouetted against a national flag during a tribute to the dead July 24 in Venezuela.
Fernando Llano
/
AP via the Miami Herald
A demonstrator dressed as Venezuelan independence hero Simón Bolivar is silhouetted against a national flag during a tribute to the dead July 24 in Venezuela.

The U.S. imposed its first economic penalties against Venezuela on Friday, hitting the South American country's financial sector in an attempt to starve President Nicolás Maduro's government of cash.

The Trump administration banned trades of Venezuelan debt, prohibiting Maduro's government and its state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, from selling new bonds to Americans or in U.S. financial institutions. President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving the sanctions Thursday.

"In an effort to preserve itself, the Maduro dictatorship rewards and enriches corrupt officials in the ogvernment's security apparatus by burdening future generations of Venezuelans with massively expensive debts," Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

Read more from our news partners at the Miami Herald.

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PATRICIA MAZZEI
Franco Ordoñez is a White House Correspondent for NPR's Washington Desk. Before he came to NPR in 2019, Ordoñez covered the White House for McClatchy. He has also written about diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and immigration, and has been a correspondent in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Haiti.