The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has awarded decorations to the four Venezuelan military personnel who have been sanctioned this week by the United States along with another twelve Venezuelan officials and has described the restrictive measures adopted by Washington as “ridiculous.”
Maduro, who has highlighted the work of the military in the fight against violence, has presented them with the Libertadores order. Thus, he has described the sanctions as “coercive measures” that aim to “intimidate public officials” in Venezuela.
The four decorated military personnel are the commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) Domingo Hernández Lárez, the general of the National Guard Elio Estrada Paredes, general Johan Hernández Lárez and the division general of the military Counterintelligence Asdrúbal Brito Hernández, according to the newspaper ‘El Universal’.
“The American empire believes that it is intimidating the public officials that it has imposed with its ridiculous sanctions. They believe that they are intimidating the officers and soldiers of our glorious Armed Forces. But what they will never be able to understand is that their sanctions are decorations in the soul of the patriots who love Venezuela and who will never give in to any blackmail or threat,” he said.
However, he stressed that these measures represent a new “violation” of International Law by the United States, which has accused the sanctioned officials of “impeding an inclusive and competitive electoral process” following the elections last July and “violating the Human and Civil Rights” of the population.
The US government, which has also imposed restrictions against important figures of Venezuelan Intelligence for the acts of “repression” carried out after the vote, considers that all those sanctioned have “obstructed the realization of a transparent electoral process.”
