Venezuela: Supreme Court criticizes US sanctions

(ANSA) – CARACAS, SEPTEMBER 13 – The Supreme Court of Venezuela brands as “interference in internal affairs” the decision of the United States government to impose sanctions against 16 state officials and magistrates of the country who validated the disputed re-election of Nicolas Maduro in the presidential elections of July 28. In a note, the president of the Court Caryslia Rodríguez defines the measures as “coercive, unilateral, illegitimate and illegal” as “a recurrent practice in conflict with the universally accepted principles of international law”. The magistrate denounces that the US initiative is part of a framework of “systematic external threats that seek to weaken Venezuelan institutions and democracy in a new form of colonialism in the current global patterns”. Criticism of Washington’s decision also came from the National Electoral Council (CNE), according to which the sanctions seek to “intimidate a group” of Venezuelan public officials – including the rector of the CNE Rosalba Gil Pacheco and its secretary Antonio José Meneses Rodríguez – affected by the measure. (ANSA).