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Trump Orders Sanctions on Venezuela Gold to Pressure Maduro

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  • Bolton calls Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua ‘Troika of Tyranny’
  • State Department also sanctions associates of Cuban military
A member of a military agency unloads gold bars from a plane for transport to the Central Bank of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 22, 2018. 

A member of a military agency unloads gold bars from a plane for transport to the Central Bank of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 22, 2018. 

 Photographer: Manaure Quintero/Bloomberg

President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing new sanctions on Venezuela’s gold sector, in a bid to disrupt trade with Turkey that U.S. officials fear is undermining efforts to pressure the South American nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro.

The order, signed Wednesday by Trump and announced at a speech Thursday by National Security Adviser John Bolton, targets people operating corruptly within Venezuela’s gold sector. It’s expected to significantly impact the country’s economy, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the announcement before it was made.