On Friday 10 January, the European Union announced the adoption of sanctions targeting fifteen additional dignitaries of the Maduro regime, on the very day that the Venezuelan President was inaugurated following a re-election, the legitimacy of which is not recognised by the EU27 (see EUROPE 13471/4).
This includes the President and Vice President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela, as well as the Vice President and Secretary-General of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela.
This decision takes the number of people sanctioned since 2017 by the EU for violating human rights and democratic rules in Venezuela to a total of 69. These sanctions are now in force until 10 January 2026.
The list of the 15 people sanctioned can be accessed here: https://aeur.eu/f/f06
On behalf of the EU, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, stated that since the Venezuelan authorities are still refusing to publish official records from polling station, “the announced results remain unverified and cannot be recognised as representative of the will of the people”. She justified the new sanctions on the grounds that, since the Presidential elections in July, “Venezuelan authorities have hardened repression and harassment against the opposition and civil society and their families, imprisoning dissenting voices and forcing its own citizens to live in fear or go into exile”.
At the European Parliament, several leading figures reiterated their refusal to recognise the legitimacy of Nicólas Maduro’s re-election. “Give Venezuela back to its people. Maduro should be facing justice, not taking an illegitimate oath”, declared its president, Roberta Metsola, on X.
The EPP Group in the European Parliament has called on governments of EU countries to put pressure on the Venezuelan authorities to respect the results of the Presidential elections, which it claims were won by political opponent Edmundo González, who is in exile in Spain. He condemned “all forms of coercion” against Venezuelan political opponents, including María Machado, who was briefly arrested on Thursday evening.
On behalf of the ECR group, Carlo Fidanza of Italy also took the view that the only possible legitimate President of Venezuela is Mr González, as the European Parliament decreed last September (see EUROPE 13486/8).
At the end of 2024, the European Parliament awarded the 2024 Sakharov Prize to the Venezuelan political opposition, in the presence of Mr González (see EUROPE 13547/21). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)