The big question about the US sanctions on seven top Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations is not whether they deserve them — of course they do — but whether the measure won’t give Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a golden excuse to usurp even more powers and further clamp down on the opposition.
As was to be expected, Maduro reacted with characteristic zeal to President Barack Obama’s executive order freezing the assets and denying visas to the Venezuelan officials.
Wrapping himself in the national flag, and obscuring the fact that the US sanctions are only targeted against selected government officials, Maduro claimed that Obama’s measures amount to “the greatest US act of aggression ever committed against Venezuela.” Hours later, Maduro asked the Venezuela’s government-controlled Congress to grant him new