Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
Announcing the new sanctions, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement that \u201cMaduro and his criminal accomplices threaten our hemisphere\u2019s peace and stability\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump Administration will continue targeting the networks that prop up his illegitimate dictatorship,\u201d Bessent added.<\/p>\n
The new sanctions target seven people who are family members or associates of Malpica Flores, a nephew of Maduro, and Panamanian businessman Ramon Carretero, who were named in an earlier round of US sanctions<\/a> that also targeted six Venezuela-flagged oil tankers and shipping firms, on December 11.<\/p>\n Flores, who is one of three of Maduro\u2019s nephews by marriage, dubbed \u201cnarco-nephews\u201d by the US Treasury Department, is wanted because he \u201chas been repeatedly linked to corruption at Venezuela\u2019s state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA\u201d, the Treasury said in a statement.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear how Flores\u2019s role in Venezuela\u2019s state-run oil company related to \u201cpropping up Nicolas Maduro\u2019s rogue narco-state\u201d, which Bessent said in his statement was the reason for widening sanctions to additional family members and associates of the president.<\/p>\n The US has claimed that tackling drug trafficking is the primary reason for its military escalation in the region since September, including the strikes on vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, which international law experts<\/a> say amount to extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n Despite the Trump administration\u2019s repeated references to drug trafficking, its actions and messaging appear increasingly focused on Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves, which are the largest in the world<\/a>. The reserves have remained relatively untapped since sanctions were imposed on the country by the US during the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n Homeland Security adviser and top Trump aide Stephen Miller<\/a> said last week that Venezuela\u2019s oil belongs to Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,\u201d Miller claimed on X. \u201cIts tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n US sanctions, particularly those targeting Venezuela\u2019s oil industry, have contributed to an economic crisis in the country and increased discontent with Maduro, who has governed Venezuela since 2013.<\/p>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/INTERACTIVE-Crude-oil-reserves-vs-exports-1756989578.png\")
<\/p>\n