The departments of State and Treasury said Maduro's associates are destroying democracy in Venezuela by eliminating opposition parties in the December elections and robbing the country's people of their freedom and independence.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that the sanctioned individuals are trying to gain command of the National Assembly of Venezuela through a corrupt election.
"The United States stands with the people of Venezuela, and this administration remains committed to targeting the illegitimate Maduro regime and its supporters as they look to strengthen their grip on power," Mnuchin said.
One of the blacklisted individuals includes Reinaldo Enrique Muñoz Pedroza, whom Maduro appointed to attorney general but has been rejected by the country's National Assembly as a legitimate representative of the Venezuelan government.
The other three sanctioned individuals are National Electoral Council officials Indira Maira Alfonso Izaguirre and Jose Luis Gutierrez Parra and former Venezuelan governor David Eugenio De Lima Salas.
According to the Treasury Department, Maduro's government-controlled Supreme Court of Justice appointed Izaguirre and Parra to the National Electoral Council to interfere with the parliamentary elections. The Trump administration's move will freeze any of the officials' U.S. assets and generally bar U.S. companies from doing business with them.
Salas brought votes to stop opposition leader Juan Guaidó from being reelected as president of the National Assembly in January and is allowing the National Electoral Council to co-opt opposition parties' brands to destroy their campaigns for the next election, the Treasury Department said.
Friday marked the latest missive in the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Venezuela, which began in earnest with the sanctioning of the country's state-owned oil giant in January 2019.
The Trump administration has sanctioned more than 100 companies and individuals affiliated with the Venezuelan government in an escalation battle over Maduro's rise to power, leading many U.S. companies, including Citgo Petroleum Corp., to immediately begin severing economic ties with the nation.
This year, the Treasury Department sanctioned seven Venezuelan officials aligned with Maduro for attempting to "illegitimately seize control" of the country's legislature and to prevent Guaidó from being reelected.
In March, the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled criminal charges against Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials for allegedly operating a drug cartel with the Colombian guerrilla group FARC and laundering drug proceeds through South Florida real estate and luxury goods.
--Additional reporting by Carolina Bolado and Alex Lawson. Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
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