(Reuters) – The U.S. government is “studying very closely” the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on individuals in Venezuela as well as potential revoking licenses for oil companies working in the South American country, in response to what it dubs a fraudulent election, a senior official said on Friday.
Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, made the remarks during a webcast briefing with reporters.
“The use of either individual sanctions or the revocation of licenses related to sectoral sanctions are something that we’re studying very closely,” said Nichols, after being asked about the possibility of imposing new visa restrictions on individuals as well terminating oil licenses.
Nichols said that the U.S. government will also work “in consultation with our friends and allies who are also concerned around this issue.”
His comments come nearly two months after Venezuela’s disputed July 28 election.
Electoral officials and the country’s top court have proclaimed President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the contest with 52% of the vote, but authorities have failed to disclose local vote tallies even though they pledged to do so.
Shortly after the election, the opposition uploaded to a website scanned copies of thousands of voting machine receipts that their observers obtained that they say show a landslide win for their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Leslie Adler)
