Treasury Pressures Illegitimate Maduro Regime by Identifying Blocked National Airline

Action to Enhance Compliance with Broad Venezuela Sanctions Program

Washington – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today identified the Venezuelan state-owned airline Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronauticas y Servicios Aereos, S.A. (CONVIASA) as subject to sanctions as part of the Government of Venezuela, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13884. Today’s action also identifies the CONVIASA fleet of aircraft as blocked property of the Government of Venezuela pursuant to E.O. 13884. Conviasa and its fleet have been blocked since the issuance of E.O. 13884 of August 5, 2019, and today they have been added to the OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List to ensure strengthened compliance with U.S. sanctions.

“The illegitimate Maduro regime relies on the Venezuelan state-owned airline CONVIASA to shuttle corrupt regime officials around the world to fuel support for its anti-democratic efforts,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The Trump Administration will not allow Maduro and his proxies to continue stealing from the Venezuelan people and abusing state-owned assets to advance their own corrupt and destabilizing activities.”

CONVIASA operates as a commercial airline based in Caracas, Venezuela, flying both domestic routes as well as providing service to select international locations. This action does not prevent the ability of the Venezuelan people to travel, as they can continue to travel on various other carriers not subject to OFAC sanctions. Rather, this action is intended to curtail the Maduro regime’s misuse of the airline. For instance, the Maduro regime has commandeered CONVIASA’s aircraft to promote its own political agenda, including shuttling regime officials to countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Iran. The following CONVIASA aircraft are blocked property of the Government of Venezuela. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.

ttps://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm903

Venezuela-related Identifications

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20200207.aspx

Schiff Calls for More Investigations — ‘Make Sure the American People Understand’ Trump’s Misconduct

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Friday on NPR’s “Morning Edition” that he would like to continue investigating President Donald Trump’s “misconduct” by hearing testimony from acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Host Steve Inskeep asked, “Two officials, I could name many, but two officials still in the administration that you wanted to hear from — Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Pompeo — do you still want to hear from them?” Schiff said, “I would still like to hear from them. But we have to make the decision about next steps in consultation with our caucus and our leadership.” He added, “what we’ll need to weigh is the need to validate Congress’ oversight authority, the need to make sure the American people understand the full length and breadth of the president’s misconduct, as well as others in the administration that were part of the misconduct. And at the same time, the imperative of keeping our legislative agenda first and foremost and striking the right balance between the two.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/02/07/schiff-calls-for-more-investigations-make-sure-the-american-people-understand-trumps-misconduct/