U.S. bounty for Maduro raised to $25 million; Venezuelan officials sanctioned

The U.S. Department of State has increased the reward for information leading to Nicolás Maduro’s arrest to $25 million, while the Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against eight Venezuelan officials as Maduro assumes office for a third term.

The new sanctions and increased bounty come as Nicolás Maduro claimed the presidency for a third time during a presidential inauguration on Friday, which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as “illegitimate” and an “attempt to seize control.”

In addition to raising Maduro’s bounty to $25 million, the Department of State has also matched the reward for Maduro’s Minister of Interior, Diosdado Cabello, and announced a new reward of up to $15 million for Maduro’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino López. These reward offers stem from criminal narcotrafficking indictments issued in March 2020 during the Trump administration.

“The State Department is also taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on Maduro-aligned individuals for their roles in undermining the electoral process or in acts of repression in Venezuela,” said the statement. “To date, the Department of State has imposed visa restrictions on nearly 2,000 Maduro-aligned individuals.”

“The Venezuelan people and the world know that Nicolás Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency today,” Blinken stated. “We stand ready to support a return to democracy in Venezuela.”

The Treasury Department also announced new sanctions against eight Venezuelan officials, including the president of Venezuela’s state-owned company PdVSA, Maduro’s Minister of Transportation and president of the state-owned airline CONVIASA, and the vice minister of Interior Policy and Legal Security of Maduro’s Interior Ministry.

The other five sanctioned individuals are high-ranking Venezuelan officials in the military and police, accused of leading entities involved in Maduro’s repression and human rights abuses, according to the Treasury.

The announcements were described as retaliatory measures by the Biden administration following Maduro’s presidential inauguration, according to The New York Times. The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president and instead acknowledges opposition candidate Edmundo González as the rightful winner of the Venezuelan elections.

In the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, Nicolás Maduro claimed victory for a third term after the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by his administration, declared him the winner with 51% of the vote. However, opposition candidate Edmundo González contested the results, citing evidence of fraud and claiming he secured approximately 70% of the vote.