The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday on Venezuela and Cuba and promised additional penalties against Nicaragua as the Trump administration laid out a hard-line policy toward countries the White House branded a “troika of tyranny.”
National security adviser John Bolton condemned what he called the “destructive forces of oppression, socialism and totalitarianism” that he said the three countries represent.
In a speech in Miami, home to thousands of exiles from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Bolton said the U.S. “will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this hemisphere.”
He spoke at the Freedom Tower, an important local landmark to the Cuban community in South Florida.
The administration will prohibit U.S. citizens from involvement in the gold export trade from Venezuela.
American officials have said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro illegally exported at least 21 metric tons of gold to Turkey to avoid U.S. sanctions and to try to help rescue a collapsing economy once bolstered by vast oil reserves.
The U.S. government has sanctioned dozens of top Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, as part of economic measures designed at pressuring the South American country’s return to democracy.
Bolton blamed Cuba for enabling Maduro’s government and he urged the nations of the region to “let the Cuban regime know that it will be held responsible for continued oppression in Venezuela.”
