State Department announces travel restrictions on several Venezuelan officials

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/state-department-announces-travel-restrictions-on-several-venezuelan-officials/2014/07/30/04130242-1806-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security

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The State Department announced new travel restrictions against a number of Venezuelan officials Wednesday in response to what it described as a sustained effort by the Caracas government to silence the political opposition.

In announcing the new restrictions, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf declined to identify the individuals subject to the visa bans, citing privacy restrictions, but indicated that they were involved in crackdowns on the anti-government protests that left dozens dead this year.

Harf said the ban affected government ministers and presidential advisers as well as judicial, law-enforcement and military officials.

The new travel ban “underscores our commitment to holding accountable individuals who commit human rights abuses,” Harf said in a statement. She said the ban is directed at specific individuals who have committed human rights violations, “not at the Venezuelan nation or its people.”

The new visa ban follows a dispute between Washington and Caracas over the fate of a high-ranking Venezuelan general. The general — Hugo Carvajal, who served as the head of Venezuela’s military intelligence and who faces drug-trafficking charges in the United States — was detained at U.S. request in Aruba last week. He was released days later, prompting U.S. officials to allege the Venezuelan government had leveled threats against Aruba to free him. Venezuela has denied the allegations.

On Wednesday, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed the State Department’s condemnation of rights abuses in Venezuela but called for tougher measures from the Obama administration.

“The Administration’s visa sanctions are an important step in the right direction, but more hard hitting sanctions are needed,” Menendez said in a statement.

In Caracas, Venezuelan officials condemned the visa bans.

“These are desperate actions,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said, according to the Reuters news agency. “They’re meant against us, but at root, they are a recognition of revolutionary Venezuela’s important role in building the new Latin America. We welcome their fury!”