The US is reinstating sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned miner Minerven following a ban on the candidacy of opposition leader María Corina Machado in upcoming elections.
The US Treasury department on Monday ordered a wind-down of transactions with the company by February 13.
In October, Washington relaxed its sanctions for six months on oil, mining, and secondary financial markets, on the condition that President Nicolás Maduro allow a “free and fair” vote in elections due this year.
But the government-aligned Supreme Court in Caracas on Friday upheld an earlier ban on Machado — who overwhelmingly won an opposition primary last October — from holding office, based on corruption charges she describes as politically motivated.