Washington, 12 December (H.S.): The United States tightened its economic grip on Venezuela on Thursday, imposing fresh sanctions on President Nicolás Maduro’s nephews and several entities linked to the country’s oil trade, as Washington escalates pressure on the Caracas regime.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced penalties against Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores, and Efraín Campo, along with Panamanian businessman Ramón Carretero Napolitano, six companies, and six Venezuela-flagged vessels accused of transporting sanctioned oil.

The move came just a day after President Donald Trump revealed that U.S. naval forces had seized a Venezuelan oil tanker operating off the country’s northern coast amid growing tensions over alleged drug and oil smuggling operations.

Under the sanctions, the individuals and firms will be barred from accessing assets or financial systems within the United States, while U.S. citizens and corporations are prohibited from conducting any business with them. Financial institutions that violate the directive risk enforcement action or additional penalties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that President Maduro and his associates were “flooding the United States with narcotics that endanger American lives.” He stressed that under Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Treasury “will continue to hold the Venezuelan regime and its corrupt network accountable for their ongoing criminal operations.”

This is not the first time members of Maduro’s family have been entangled in diplomatic crossfire. In 2022, Venezuela released seven detained American citizens in exchange for Flores and Campo, who had been convicted in a New York court for drug trafficking after a DEA sting operation in Haiti in 2015.

Carlos Flores, previously sanctioned in 2017, had been removed from the blacklist in 2022 under President Biden’s administration as part of efforts to promote democratic negotiations in Venezuela. His reinstatement now signals a decisive policy reversal under Trump’s renewed hardline stance.

The latest measures come amid reports that U.S. forces have carried out dozens of aerial and naval strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, leaving at least 87 people dead.

Trump has characterized these operations as part of an “armed conflict” against transnational cartels threatening U.S. security.Washington’s resurgence of sanctions underscores a broader geopolitical message—one aimed at isolating Maduro’s government further while tightening the economic noose around his closest allies and business networks.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar