The son of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro is a silver-spoon socialist who lives the good life as his country starves.

Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, 29, is a party boy who runs a corrupt gold-mining concern and occupies several high-level positions in his father’s government, which the US and numerous other countries have deemed illegitimate.

At the end of June, Maduro Guerra, who is known as “Nicolasito” or Little Nicolás in Venezuela, became the latest member of the Maduro clan to be slapped with sanctions by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The move came after Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, the former head of the country’s secret police who fled to the US last month, said Maduro Guerra is in charge of a precious-metals company that buys up cheap gold from independent miners and sells it at inflated prices to Venezuela’s central bank.

“Corruption is practised like a sport in Venezuela,” Figuera wrote in a letter addressed to Venezuelans that was recently circulated on social media.

While he calls himself a committed socialist on social media, Maduro Guerra sparked outrage in a country beset by rolling blackouts as it teeters on the verge of economic collapse. Two years ago, he was filmed dancing at an upscale wedding at a luxury hotel in Caracas while guests threw dollar bills at him.

And just to ensure that he is not caught in any compromising photos, he has been known to silence his critics. Two years ago, partygoer Rita Morales tried to take a picture of the pudgy scion surrounded by his retinue of heavily armed bodyguards at a baptism bash in an exclusive Maracaibo club in northern Venezuela. But, according to published reports, the goons grabbed her cellphone and told her to delete the photos. Morales refused, and days later faced intense questioning from the country’s secret police, who paid her a visit at her home. They destroyed her phone and hauled her in for questioning to the infamous El Helicoide prison in Caracas, where the regime tortures political opponents, according to press reports.

On Twitter, Maduro Guerra claims to be a former flautist who used to play in one of the country’s elite orchestras. He also says he has a degree in economics from a university in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, despite his lack of political experience, he has occupied powerful positions in his father’s government since he was in his early twenties.

In addition to being a deputy in the country’s National Constituent Assembly, Maduro Guerra was also appointed by his father to be the head of the Corps of Inspectors of the Presidency, the government agency that inspects public works.

In 2014, Maduro also put his son in charge of the Venezuelan School of Cinema, a move that sparked wisecracks and outrage among the Andean country’s arts community.

Director Jonathan Jakubowicz joked that Maduro Guerra would begin giving classes about “the cinema of torture, propaganda and . . . porn.” Acclaimed playwright José Tomás Angola noted that “Maduro’s son knows nothing about cinema. What he does know is how to steal a camera.”

The recent sanctions will freeze any assets that Maduro Guerra has in the US, and will prohibit Americans from doing business with him or any companies he controls. The Treasury Department did not detail Maduro Guerra’s assets.

The younger Maduro was quick to denounce the sanctions last week, tweeting that he is “stronger than ever.”

“Do we, the youth,” he asked, “deserve to be sanctioned for thinking and acting for the liberty of our people?”