By EFE
Sep 13, 2024, 11:55 PM EDT
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Friday decorated four military officers who, along with 12 other officials in the country, were sanctioned by the United States for having “falsely” proclaimed the president’s victory in the elections of July 28.
The head of state said that the United States “aggressed” and “attacked” the four soldiers, whom he called “brave,” with “so-called sanctions,” for having “been protagonists” against “the attack of the fascist outbreak,” in reference to the post-election protests, unleashed against the fraud that gave a supposed victory to Maduro, a victory that the opposition considers “fraudulent.”
“The American empire believes that it is intimidating public officials. What they will never be able to understand is that their sanctions are decorations in the souls of patriots who love our Venezuela,” he said during an event broadcast by the state channel VTV.
The decorated and sanctioned military personnel are Domingo Hernández Lárez, strategic operational commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces; Elio Estrada, commander of the Bolivarian National Guard; Johan Hernández Lárez, commander of the Strategic Region of Integral Defense of the Capital of the GNB and Asdrúbal Brito, director of Criminal Investigations of the DGCIM.
Earlier, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, on behalf of the FANB, rejected the US sanctions, which he described as “unilateral coercive measures.”
The other 12 sanctioned officials include members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the National Electoral Council and the National Assembly.
These measures block all personal property and assets of the 16 Venezuelans in the United States, without affecting state assets or public companies, and prohibit them from carrying out financial transactions.
To date, there are more than 140 Venezuelan officials sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, and nearly 2,000 individuals are subject to visa restrictions by the U.S. State Department.
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