The Treasury Department, headed by Steven Mnuchin (right), said the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PdVSA has “long been a vehicle for corruption.” | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Finance & Tax Trump sanctions Venezuelan oil in latest move against Maduro

President Donald Trump on Monday ratcheted up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by slapping sanctions on the country’s state-owned petroleum company, his latest move against a regime he has deemed illegitimate.

Shortly after the release of an executive order, the Treasury Department said PdVSA has “long been a vehicle for corruption.” The sanctions come after Trump last week declared the U.S. would no longer recognize the Maduro government, proclaiming opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the rightful “interim president” of Venezuela.


“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement on the new sanctions.

Treasury said the administration would consider lifting the sanctions “for those who take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions to support democratic order and combat corruption in Venezuela, including PdVSA.”

“The path to sanctions relief for PdVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government,” Mnuchin said.

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A source with direct knowledge of the situation said lawmakers were briefed beforehand.

“The Maduro crime family has used PDVSA to buy and keep the support of many military leaders,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a press release before the executive order‘s release. “The oil belongs to the Venezuelan people, and therefore the money PDVSA earns from its export will now be returned to the people through their legitimate constitutional government.”

Rubio was among the first members of Congress to applaud Trump’s move to recognize Guaidó, the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly.

That decision, backed by several other American allies, could be a turning point for Venezuela, an oil-rich country whose economy has collapsed. But Maduro, who still controls the country’s security forces, appears determined to hang on to the presidency, announcing last Wednesday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with America.

Venezuela’s economy relies a great deal on U.S. purchases of its oil, but only 6 percent of U.S. oil imports come from the Latin American country.

Mnuchin told reporters that the administration had been “very careful” to make sure its sanctions wouldn’t affect American consumers through higher gas prices.

“We’re very comfortable they have enough supply,” he said of the parts of the country that will be affected. “We don’t expect a big impact in the short term.”

Andrew Desiderio and Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.