Walls Close In on Venezuela With U.S. Bond Sanctions

Fresh restrictions on trading Venezuelan debt have drawn the financial noose more tightly around the neck of the struggling nation.

The Trump administration on Friday barred the purchase in U.S. markets of new securities issued by the government and its state oil company and blocked dealing in some existing bonds owned by the country’s public sector to further clamp down on President Nicolas Maduro’s autocratic regime. The U.S., which will still allow the continued import of Venezuela’s lifeblood oil, acted in response to Maduro’s moves to consolidate authority amid a crippling recession and months of violent protests.