Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will award the 21 government officials sanctioned by the US for their involvement in the repression following the presidential elections on 28 July.
"I have given the order to create, in the coming days, the highest decoration of the Republic that will bear the name of the 200th anniversary of the Great Victory of Ayacucho and I will place the decoration that I am creating on each of these men, these beings who were attacked today [Wednesday]", announced Nicolás Maduro.
The Venezuelan President was speaking during the celebrations of the 104th anniversary of the Bolivarian Military Aviation, an event that was broadcast on Venezuelan state television.
Maduro explained that the new sanctions were imposed by the "decadent US government" against a group of "eminent men", military leaders, police officers, politicians and popular figures, literary writers, whom he invited to participate in the celebrations.
"If the issue of aggression through the so-called sanctions were not so serious, I would say that what they did is laughable and ridiculous. I would dare to say that they are ridiculous and that we laugh at their sanctions, but I will not do so, even though that is what causes them," stressed Maduro, who read out several names of those sanctioned and introduced them to the country.
The announcement of the awarding of the decorations took place after the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement condemning the imposition of new sanctions against "a group of patriots" who "have dedicated themselves to safeguarding peace, stability, economic recovery and national unity in the face of fascist violence designed, financed and promoted from Washington against the democratic will of the Venezuelan people."
"The measures announced are a desperate act by a decadent and erratic government, which is trying to hide its resounding electoral failure and the serious social crisis it is leaving the country in, with a new aggression against the noble Venezuelan people," the statement reads.
According to Caracas, the sanctions announced on Wednesday "do not promote democracy in Venezuela, but seek to give a final breath to a scattered and discredited fascist group that has no roots in the Venezuelan population, in order to prolong its failed policy of regime change." The United States announced new sanctions on 21 more allies of Maduro, accusing them of responsibility for the repression of demonstrations following the presidential elections in July.
The sanctions target senior Venezuelan officials, including 14 heads of security services close to the president, such as the director of the Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Alexis Rodriguez Cabello, and ten senior officers of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), a military force responsible for public order and which participated in the repression of demonstrations, the US Treasury said in a statement.
The list of those sanctioned also includes the director of the country's corrections agency and the minister of the Office of the President. They join a list of dozens of Venezuelans who have been sanctioned, including the president of the country’s Supreme Court, ministers and prosecutors.
Nicolás Maduro won a disputed victory in the July 28 presidential election, awarded by the National Electoral Council (CNE) with just over 51% of the vote, while the opposition claims that opponent Edmundo González Urrutia won almost 70% of the vote.
The election results were contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by security forces, more than 2,400 arrests, 27 deaths and 192 injuries.
The administration of current US President Joe Biden last week recognized the Venezuelan opposition candidate as the nation’s “president-elect.”
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