This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The United States has imposed new sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials, turning up the heat on the beleaguered government of Nicolás Maduro as opposition activists launched a 48-hour strike in protest against an upcoming vote they say will mark the end of democracy.

Venezuela to vote amid crisis: all you need to know Read more

The sanctions unveiled on Wednesday targeted current and former government officials, high-ranking military officers, and managers of the state oil company known as PDVSA for alleged human rights abuses, undermining democracy and corruption.

But they were also part of an international effort to pressure Maduro to cancel this Sunday’s election to choose members of a new body to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution.

“Anyone elected to the national constituent assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential US sanctions,” said the US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.

The targets include Néstor Reverol, the interior minister for security, who has helped lead the crackdown on four months of political unrest; army chief Jesus Suárez; national police director Carlos Pérez; and PDVSA vice-president for finance Simón Zerpa.

Reverol, a former head of the Venezuelan anti-drug agency and director of the national guard, was promoted to his current position last year, a day after the US indicted him on drug trafficking charges.

Other targets were the national elections director, Tibisay Lucena, who has repeatedly thwarted opposition efforts to seek to replace the Maduro government through constitutional means. Opposition leaders accuse Lucena of stalling last year’s attempt at holding a recall referendum against the president.

Former minister Elías Jaua – now head of the committee overseeing the constituent assembly – the country’s ombudsman, Tarek Willian Saab, and former PDVSA vice-president Erik Malpica were also named.

Profile Who is Nicolás Maduro? Show Hide Political career Nicolás Maduro has ruled Venezuela without two of the greatest assets possessed by his mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez. He has not been lucky. And he has no charisma. Chávez enjoyed an oil bounty and sublime political talents that secured his power at home and reputation abroad. Maduro, in contrast, inherited a wobbling economy addicted to high oil prices and a system of authoritarian populism dependent on showmanship and patronage. Oil prices tumbled and Maduro proved to be a fumbling showman, exposing the financial ineptitude and ideological hollowness of the “Bolivarian revolution”. This could have doomed his presidency, which began in 2013 after Chávez died, but the former bus driver, a hulking bear of a man who rose up trade union ranks, turned out to be tenacious and ruthless. Born into a working class family in Caracas in 1962, he left school without graduating and drove buses for the Caracas metro. He became a union organiser and early supporter of Chávez, who, after leading a failed coup, led a leftwing coalition to an electoral landslide in 1998. Maduro was the speaker of the assembly before serving as Chávez’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2013, a visible if largely silent presence as the comandante held court on the world stage. Chávez anointed Maduro as his heir before succumbing to cancer. The story of his rule – and Venezuela’s agony – is a determination to keep power amid economic collapse, humanitarian disaster and international condemnation. Since January 2019 his presidency has been disputed, with Juan Guaidó being sworn in as interim president, and recognised as Venezuela’s ruler by some international powers. Crisis after crisis has buffeted his government – hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, power blackouts, mass protests, drone attacks, defections, US-led sanctions – and Maduro has remained standing, resolute, implacable. It is a remarkable position for a man who, in a 2014 Guardian interview, described himself as a bit of a hippy and a fan of Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. “I never aspired to be president,” he said. “I always honour something that commander Chávez told us: that while we were in these posts we must be clothed in humility and understand that we are here to protect the man and woman of the streets.” Rory Carroll

Donald Trump has warned the White House would take “strong and swift economic actions” against “a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator”, but the new measures spared Venezuela from broader financial sanctions or “sectoral” sanctions targeting its oil industry.

Venezuela relies on oil exports for 95% of its income, and experts have warned that such a move could further exacerbate the already critical humanitarian situation. The country’s foreign currency reserves – currently at less than $10bn – hit their lowest ever level earlier this month.

Maduro responded to the new sanctions by granting a copy of a sabre used by independence hero Rafael Urdaneta to each of those targeted by the “imperialist sanctions” as a recognition of their “honor in defense of the homeland”.

Maduro said his government does not “recognize any sanctions” and insisted that the government would go ahead with the vote on Sunday.

The streets of opposition strongholds in Caracas and other cities were mostly deserted on Wednesday morning, at the start of the strike, before what promise to be massive street protests on Friday – two days before the controversial vote to elect a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

“We’re stopping the country – or was is left of it – because we risk losing it. This government destroyed our industries and now they’re one step from becoming dictatorial with this new vote. That’s why we stopped today and why we must keep fighting,” said a 35-year-old lawyer who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

“It is an extreme measure but one we’ve had to arrive at because the government fails to listen to what the people want”, said Alejandro Pérez, a publicist.

Alexander Garcia, a 24-year-old student at Venezuela’s Central University, was one of about 10 people who manned a barricade on the campus. Trucks packed with riot police circled them for most of the day, but the protesting students and professors chose not to engage, Garcia said in a phone interview with the Guardian.

Many shops remained open in some parts of Caracas despite the call to strike for fear of reprisals. “Many shops were threatened,” Garcia said. “Some bakeries were told if they closed today they would never be allowed to open again.”

In other parts of the country, protesters clashed with security forces and at least one man, 30-year-old Rafael Vergara was shot dead in the western state of Mérida when troops and armed civilians confronted protesters, the Venezuelan Observatory on Social Conflict said on Twitter. Local rights group Penal Forum said 50 people had been arrested.

Meanwhile, secret negotiations are believed to continue between the opposition and government, mediated by the former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to try to avert a full-blown showdown.

Miguel Otero, editor of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, told Colombian radio station RCN that Maduro still had a chance to step back by calling off the vote – or at least delaying it to reduce the mounting tensions.

Zapatero met opposition leader Leopoldo López on Monday at his home, where the 46-year-old former Caracas-area mayor, who was transferred to house arrest earlier this month after spending three years in prison, serving a 14-year sentence after being convicted of inciting violence.

On Wednesday, López called on Venezuelans to adhere to the strike and appealed to the military not to deploy for Sunday’s election. “We are on the brink of their trying to annihilate the republic that you swore to defend,” Lopez said in a 15-minute video message. “I ask you not to be accomplices in the annihilation of the republic.”

The opposition has boycotted the vote, warning it is a final power grab by an increasingly authoritarian regime but Maduro insists it is the way to peace after four months of anti-government unrest in which more than 100 people have been killed.

On Wednesday, Colombia’s national carrier Avianca announced it was suspending all flights to Venezuela from 16 August because of growing insecurity and deteriorating airport infrastructure.