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12 April 2015

Obama Puts the Heat on Chavistas

April 10, 2015

On March 9, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order that qualifies Venezuela's regime as a threat to U.S. internal security and foreign policy. The order imposes asset freezes and visa bans against seven high-ranking officials, mostly from the military and the police, for their role in violations of human rights.

Caracas' reaction was predictable enough. The Venezuelan government and its regional allies (Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua at the forefront) swiftly dismissed the claim that Venezuela could be a threat to the United States and accused Obama of interference in Venezuela's internal affairs. Never mind that, as emphasized by Chile's former President Ricardo Lagos, "as regards human rights, there aren't frontiers, and wherever such rights are violated, someone has to cry foul". (Lagos was discussing Venezuela when he made the statement.)

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