United States Designates The Government Of Venezuela For Blocking Sanctions

On August 5, 2019, the U.S. Administration imposed blocking sanctions on the Government of Venezuela ("GOV") under a new executive order ("EO 13884")

Although named individual officials, the Central Bank of Venezuela, and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. ("PdVSA") were already blocked entities under U.S. sanctions, now all Venezuelan government entities and state-owned enterprises are blocked entities.

Unless a license applies:

all property and interests in property (broadly defined) of the GOV within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked; and all transactions within U.S. jurisdiction in which the GOV has an interest are prohibited. GOV entities are now effectively barred from the U.S. economy and from U.S. dollar transactions.

However, the impact of this expanded designation has been significantly mitigated by general licenses issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") of the U.S. Treasury. OFAC has amended 12 previously issued Venezuela-related general licenses and issued 13 new general licenses, along with issuing new and revised guidance, to implement EO 13884. Importantly, treatment of pre-sanctions Venezuelan bonds and dealings with...