United States Special Envoy to Venezuela Eliot Abrams warned today that the White House could soon come after more companies that do business with PDVSA, the Venezuela state-owned oil company.

According to Reuters, Abrams said today that the Trump administration is looking to increase pressure on PDVSA. Nearly all of the money that comes into Venezuela does so through oil sales administered by PDVSA, which is operated by regime loyalists.

According to Reuters:

U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Reuters in an interview that there will be more sanctions as Washington plans to go after continued customers of Venezuelan oil, including those in Asia, and target intermediaries helping Caracas hide the origin of its oil.

“The President has made a decision to push harder on the Venezuelan oil sector and we’re going to do it. And what we’re telling people involved in this sector is that they should get out of it,” Abrams said.

 

The news comes just days after the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against Russian oil giant Rosneft over its continued financial ties to PDVSA.

TAP: No Evidence of Wrongdoing

Portugal’s TAP airlines has issued a statement indicating that an internal investigation has found no evidence that the the accusations levied against it by the Maduro regime are true. The accusations stem from the arrest of Juan Guaido’s uncle, Juan Jose Marquez, whom the regime accused of smuggling explosives into the country on a flight from Lisbon on February 11.

During televised statements made on February 17, Minister of Transportation Hipolito Abreu accused TAP employees of allowing Marquez to board the aircraft with explosives and of not properly checking passenger documents at the time of boarding.

The preliminary results of the investigation, which was ordered by Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, have found no evidence that any of the claims that the Maduro regime has made are true.

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