The United States Treasury Department announced new sanctions Friday against individuals linked to Chavismo, including direct relatives of Venezuela’s first lady, Cilia Flores, and Panamanian businessman Ramón Carretero. This measure is part of Washington’s pressure strategy on the government of Nicolas Maduro, which is advancing on different fronts.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included on the sanctions list individuals linked to Carlos Malpica Flores, nephew of Cilia Flores, who was reinstated to the sanctions regime last week. Joining us now is Eloísa Flores de Malpica, mother of Malpica Flores and sister of the first lady; Carlos Evelio Malpica Torrealba, his father; Iriamni Malpica Flores, his sister; Damaris del Carmen Hurtado Pérez, his wife; and Erica Patricia Malpica Hurtado, his adult daughter.
The Treasury Department states that the sanctions are based on the presumption that the indicated individuals participated directly or indirectly in corrupt transactions with the Venezuelan state or in government projects and programs.
“Today, Treasury sanctioned individuals who support Nicolas Maduro’s rogue narco-state. We will not allow Venezuela to continue flooding our country with deadly drugs,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He added that “Maduro and his criminal accomplices threaten the peace and stability of our hemisphere” and that the Trump administration will continue to attack networks that support what he described as an “illegitimate dictatorship.”
The sanctions also affect those close to Panamanian businessman Ramón Carretero, accused by Washington of doing business with Chavismo and with the Maduro-Flores family. On this list are his brothers Roberto and Vicente Luis Carretero Napolitano, whose assets and accounts in the United States are blocked.
Malpica Flores was removed from the sanctions list in 2022, as part of negotiations between Caracas and the administration of Joe Biden. The first lady’s nephew was national treasurer and played a key role in running the state-owned oil company PDVSA. That same year, the United States released two other nephews of Cilia Flores – Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas – who had been sentenced in 2017 in New York to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking, after being detained in Haiti during a DEA sting operation. Both were released in an exchange for American prisoners, but last week they were sanctioned again along with their cousin.
Since 2008, more than 275 people linked to Chavismo – including civil and military officials, businessmen and commercial operators – have been sanctioned, mainly by the United States and the European Union, as well as countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Panama and Switzerland. The new measures coincide with recent statements by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who reiterated his accusations regarding alleged links between the Maduro government and criminal activities. “In the case of Venezuela, it is very simple: it is an illegitimate regime that openly cooperates with Iran, with Hezbollah and with drug trafficking groups, including the ELN and the FARC guerrillas, which operate on Venezuelan territory,” he said.
Rubio argued that these alliances transform the Venezuelan government into a factor of regional destabilization and a facilitator of activities that threaten the security of the United States. “The most serious threat to the United States in the Western Hemisphere comes from transnational terrorist criminal groups, focused primarily on drug trafficking. There is one place that is not cooperating, and that is the illegitimate regime of Venezuela,” he said at a news conference Friday.
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