The United States imposed fresh sanctions on three relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, alongside six companies shipping the South American country’s oil.
The move came shortly after the United States seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, the latest escalation in tensions between the two countries.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement that three of the individuals targeted Thursday are nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.
They are Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores.
Campo and Flores de Freitas were said to be “narco-traffickers operating in Venezuela.” Sanctions were being imposed again on Malpica, whose designation in 2017 was lifted in 2022 under former US president Joe Biden to foster dialogue, the statement said.
The fourth person impacted is businessman Ramon Carretero Napolitano, whom the Treasury Department accused of engaging in “lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime.”
“Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
“These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people,” Bessent added.
Washington has accused Venezuela’s leftist leader of heading a drug cartel, which he denies. Maduro has said the United States is seeking regime change and to seize Venezuela’s vast reserves of oil.
Trump has deployed warships within striking distance of Venezuela, and at least 87 people have been killed in strikes on boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea.
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