By David Alire Garcia
(Reuters) -The U.S. is closely studying imposing new sanctions on individuals in Venezuela as well as potentially revoking licenses for oil companies working there, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, in response to what it dubs a fraudulent election result.
Brian Nichols, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, made the remarks during a webcast briefing with reporters, two months after Venezuela’s bitterly disputed July 28 presidential election.
“The use of either individual sanctions or the revocation of licenses related to sectoral sanctions are something that we’re studying very closely,” said Nichols, after he was asked about the possibility of imposing new visa restrictions on individuals as well as terminating existing oil licenses.
OPEC-member Venezuela is one of Latin America’s major oil producing countries, but its crude output has fallen sharply during Maduro’s more than decade in power, mostly due to under-investment as well as five years of U.S. sanctions on the industry. The country’s oil production has slightly rebounded in recent years.
Following the election, some in Venezuela’s opposition have asked that U.S. officials amend or withdraw oil licenses that provide income to Maduro’s government.
Nichols, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, emphasized that Washington will work with “our friends and allies” as it seeks a democratic transition in Venezuela.
Electoral officials and the country’s top court have proclaimed socialist President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the contest with 52% of the vote. But authorities, many with close ties to Maduro’s ruling party, have failed to disclose ballot box-level vote tallies, even though they repeatedly said they would and are required by law to do so.
Venezuelan officials have said a computer hack prevented them from disclosing the tallies.
Just days after the election, however, the country’s opposition uploaded to a website scanned copies of thousands of voting machine receipts that their observers obtained and that they say show a landslide win for their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.
Earlier this month, Gonzalez fled to Spain where he was granted political asylum.
The United States, like most governments in the Americas as well as the European Union, have not recognized Maduro as the winner of the July 28 election.
“The United States and our partner countries continue to refuse to accept Maduro’s claim to victory without evidence,” Nichols said, adding the U.S. government instead vouches for “the publicly-available evidence” that shows Gonzalez won.
He stressed that Caracas has not lived up to its promises.
“They’ve repeatedly said that they would provide information. They’ve never done so to prove any element of their claim that Maduro won. It’s obvious that he didn’t,” said Nichols.
The diplomat also called for the release of those “arbitrarily” detained” in the aftermath of the election and an end to political violence against the opposition.