The Atlantic Council has just published a document on the issue of “What US sanctions would be most effective in maximizing pressure on President Maduro’s government while minimizing repercussions for the Venezuelan people?”
It includes to “Extend the use of individual sanctions, and potentially some entity-focused sanctions, to fracture the regime soft-liners from the hard-liners with nothing to lose.”
I agree, though I do think that these sanctions, in an initial phase, do not have to be as severe as to “block all property belonging to those individuals and entities subject to US jurisdiction and prohibit US persons from engaging in transactions with them.
Lesser impact sanctions, extended to many more soft-liners, could prove easier to implement and be even more effective.
It might suffice with informing that USA, Canada, Europe and all those nations that recently signed a declaration in Lima, were now contemplating issuing a blank prohibition to all members of the Constituent Assembly, and of the National Guard, to access any kind of visa.
If that prohibition could, at a later moment, perhaps also be extended to include all their close relatives, it would ignite many serious discussions and doubts in the homes of the soft-liners.
