US Needs More European Sanctions to Force Venezuela Regime Change, Officials Say

European countries need to increase sanctions against Venezuela to force a regime change and limit Nicolas Maduro’s ability to evade U.S. restrictions, said Carrie Filipetti, the State Department’s assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Filipetti also said more U.S.-European cooperation can help limit the Maduro regime’s access to gold supply chains, which it uses for funding.

Filipetti’s comments came days after Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, certified that Venezuela has not met conditions for free elections. Although Filipetti said Borrell’s statement correctly pointed out issues surrounding the elections, it did not call for increased sanctions. “I think we need to ... ensure that there are actual actions and consequences for this behavior,” Filipetti said during an Aug. 13 event hosted by the Atlantic Council. “If there aren't, the Maduro regime will continue with impunity.”

Filipetti said U.S. sanctions have had an “enormous impact” on the Maduro regime and will ultimately force him to step down from power. Adm. Craig Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, also said pressure from U.S. sanctions is working, but the U.S. needs help addressing Maduro’s sanctions evasion. “The key going forward is how we can better share intelligence and then how the international community can better leverage that to force a change,” he said during the event.

Although U.S. restrictions have had success, Filipetti said, the U.S. needs more help from allies. “It's not something that the United States can do alone. It's not something that the Venezuelan people can do alone,” she said. “We really do need our European partners to step up to the plate to increase the number of sanctions.”

Maduro has “proven resilient in the face of some of the most comprehensive sanctions that the U.S. government has imposed on any country,” Filipetti said, partly due to his sanctions evasion tactics. She said Maduro is “doubling down” on finding funding through illegal sources, such as drug smuggling, gold mining and alliances with Cuba, Iran, Russia and Nicaragua.

Douglas Farah, president of IBI Consultants, a national security consulting company, said Maduro is increasingly using Nicaragua for gold trade. “A lot of the gold from Venezuela is now going to Nicaragua and being exported from Nicaragua as Nicaraguan gold, which is a way to avoid sanctions,” Farah said.

To counter Maduro, the U.S. should work more closely with Europe on limiting his access to jewelry and gold supply chains, Filipetti said. Stronger relationships with European countries can lead to better due diligence practices by companies involved in gold mining and exports of extraction equipment, she said. “We can help ... promote best practices in the jewelry industry to prevent the types of mining practices that keep the Maduro regime in power,” Filipetti said.