US Sanctions Freeze Billions In Venezuelan Assets, Violate International Law - Minister

Venezuela has lost access to foreign assets worth billions due to unilateral US sanctions, including hydrocarbon holdings, Tourism and Foreign Trade Minister Felix Plasencia told Sputnik

AMMAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Venezuela has lost access to foreign assets worth billions due to unilateral US sanctions, including hydrocarbon holdings, Tourism and Foreign Trade Minister Felix Plasencia told Sputnik.

"Billions of Dollars [that] our people own has been affected by unilateral coercive measures taken by the government of the US, violating the international law and trying to impose unilateral decisions on free and sovereign state," he said.

The US administration intensified efforts to topple the Venezuelan government this year by imposing economic sanctions that US officials said were designed to exacerbate the nation's already acute economic crisis.

"We have been affected by the impossibility to move our assets... We have property, like an oil company in the US frozen, it has been taken from us," the minister pointed out.

In January, the US Treasury piled sanctions onto Texas-based refiner Citgo, which belongs to Venezuelan state-run energy giant Petroleum of Venezuela, prompting the facility to reduce ties with the parent company. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of trying to steal Citgo.