OFAC Sanctions Venezuelan Military Agency

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, also known as La Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar (DGCIM), for operating in the country’s military sector, Treasury said in a July 11 press release.

Treasury pointed to the DGCIM’s arrest of Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, who the DGCIM said was planning to assassinate Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Acosta later “showed signs of physical abuse” before dying days after his arrest, the press release said. Treasury also pointed to a report issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner that detailed the DGCIM’s torture methods to “extract information and confessions.”

“The politically motivated arrest and tragic death of Captain Rafael Acosta was unwarranted and unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “Treasury is committed to ending the former Maduro regime’s inhumane treatment of political opponents, innocent civilians, and members of the military in an effort to suppress dissent.”