US assesses sanctions that restrict Visa and MasterCard in Venezuela

The United States is considering imposing financial penalties that could prohibit Visa, MasterCard and other financial institutions from processing transactions in Venezuelasaid Thursday a senior government official Donald Trump.

This measure, which has not yet been decided, would considerably increase the pressure on the government of President Nicolás Maduro and his allies in the army, as well as other connected Venezuelans of the upper middle clbad who have access to bank accounts and credit cards.

"The purpose of these sanctions is to continue to deprive Maduro's illegitimate regime of access to funds and prevent it from continuing to steal the Venezuelan people"said the official.

Senior Trump administration officials have warned in recent weeks that Venezuelan banks or international financial institutions could face US sanctions for helping Maduro steal or hide state badets.

The possible financial sanctions are based on similar sanctions imposed by the Trump government on Iran, North Korea, Syria and, to a lesser extent, Russia.said the official.

The sanctions would generally aim to block the access of state financial institutions to the international financial system, including credit card providers and SWIFT, the financial messaging service based in Belgium. US companies and other international companies use local institutions to process transactions, and most local financial institutions are state-owned enterprises.

The measure could also affect oil, power, aeronautical and agricultural companies operating in Venezuela, including General Electric Co., Cargill Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc., as well as their local subcontractors.

The United States would use their powers to exempt Venezuelan citizens so that they could buy food and medicine.

Visa and MasterCard represent the majority of transactions in the country. In addition, this restriction could result in the withdrawal of other international payment processors.

The US State Department also announced Thursday that it had canceled since Monday hundreds of visas granted to Venezuelans, one-third of whom were former diplomats and their families. The agency also urged US citizens to leave the oil country.

"Since Monday (…), we have canceled 340 visas, including 107 visas of former Maduro diplomats and their families," US State Department spokesman Robert told reporters. Palladino.

With Reuters information