Mubasher: The US administration on Friday sanctioned senior Venezuelan security officials as well as the head of state-owned oil Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), Manuel Quevedo, as it pile the pressure on President Nicholas Maduro to step down.

The US Treasury Department also sanctioned three top Venezuelan intelligence officials and Rafael Bastardo, who is believed by US officials to be the head of a national police unit responsible for dozens of extrajudicial executions.

The sanctioned intelligence officials were the Venezuelan National Intelligence general director Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera and the service first commander Hildemaro Jose Rodriguez Mucura.

Also included was Presidential Guard commander Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala, who is said to have tortured Maduro’s opponents and committed other human rights violations.

The sanctions meant that the Treasury would freeze all assets in US control of the officials, banning any US person from conducting business with the sanctions targets.

“We are sanctioning officials in charge of Maduro’s security and intelligence apparatus, which has systematically violated human rights and suppressed democracy, including through torture and other brutal use of force,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The White House last month announced that it recognised opposition’s leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.

The US hit PdVSA with sanctions, in an attempt to prevent the Maduro regime from accessing revenues from Venezuelan oil exports.