Local Venezuelans are speaking out following President Obama's executive order imposing sanctions on Venezuelan officials.
The executive order includes the director of the national police and the inspector general of the Venezuelan national armed forces. These individuals will have their assets blocked or frozen in the United States, they cannot enter the country, and anyone in the U.S. is prohibited from doing business with them.
The White House says the President issued the order because the situation in Venezuela poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
"The important issue right now is that President Obama declared an emergency in our country because of the situation in Venezuela," South Florida Venezuela native Ernesto Ackerman said. "This is what we have been saying 15 years ago, that in Venezuela they were building up infrastructure and other issues that could hurt this country."
"The human rights crisis in Venezuela is getting worse every day, and these long overdue financial sanctions are important steps to hold Nicolas Maduro's regime accountable," Sen. Marco Rubio said. "Even as I welcome this round of sanctions, I question why President Obama is simultaneously moving to lift sanctions on Cuba, which has played a direct role in sowing unrest in Venezuela and has a human rights record even worse than the Maduro regime. Human rights violations in Venezuela stem directly from what the Cuban army and intelligence agency have taught the Chavez-Maduro regime."
“Today’s actions by the administration highlight the abuses of just seven individuals in the Maduro regime who are responsible for perpetrating some of these crimes, but much more can be done and more individuals should be sanctioned," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. "These punitive sanctions are a step forward in our effort to hold accountable repressive regimes in our own Hemisphere, but only just a small step. Maduro and his officials continue to undermine the U.S., stymie dissent by arbitrarily arresting opposition leaders, intimidate the media, and perpetrate human rights violations."
