Senator Calls for Venezuela Sanctions

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., urged the Biden administration Aug. 16 to impose more sanctions on Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro and his regime for refusing to concede he lost the country’s recent presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Scott said the administration should sanction not only Maduro “and the military thugs protecting him” but also “countries that provide assistance to Maduro’s crippling dictatorship.”

Scott joins a growing chorus of lawmakers who want the administration to punish Maduro for trying to “steal” the election. More than 30 House members, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, have backed a resolution that recommends sanctioning the Maduro regime and its enablers (see 2408050024 and 2408090029). Those enablers include China, Cuba and Russia, said a spokesperson for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., one of the resolution's sponsors.

Senior Biden administration officials have said they are considering “consequences,” including sanctions, in response to last month's election (see 2407290044). The administration is "evaluating what Maduro and his representatives do or do not do next and we will respond accordingly," a National Security Council spokesperson said Aug. 9.

William Reinsch, the Scholl Chair in International Business for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Export Compliance Daily Aug. 16 that the administration is being cautious on sanctions because it is engaged in a “delicate effort to try to get Maduro to go away" and is trying "to find a face-saving path to enable that.” If Congress were to start advancing sanctions legislation, the administration would likely ask lawmakers to hold off at least for now, Reinsch said.