Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has branded US sanctions levelled at his regime as “insolent”, while pressure mounts over his controversial plan to elect a new body to rewrite the country’s constitution.
The US measures came as Venezuela’s opposition began a two-day nationwide strike aimed at ousting the president through early elections.
The deadliness of four months of violent anti-Maduro protests was further confirmed with the death by gunfire of a 30-year-old man in a demonstration in the west of the country.
Prosecutors said a 16-year-old boy also was killed in Wednesday’s disturbances in Caracas. The deaths raised to 105 the number of people killed since April 1 in clashes with security forces.
In Washington, the US Treasury unveiled a list of 13 current and former officials, including the interior minister, senior military brass, the president of the electoral council and the finance chief of state oil company PDVSA, whose US assets would be frozen.
The opposition and US aim to force Maduro to abandon his plan to form a 545-member “Constituent Assembly”, which is set to be elected on Sunday. Critics say it would be a step towards a dictatorship, by bypassing or dissolving the opposition-held National Assembly.