Legislation to punish Venezuela's government for human rights abuses is advancing in Congress against objections by the the Obama administration, according to Reuters.
The bill orders the Obama administration to ban visas and freeze the assets of Venezuelan officials who violated human rights during anti-government protests that have roiled the South American nation since February, Reuters reported.
The Foreign Affairs Committee recommended passing the bill to Congress on Friday, according to Reuters. The bill will now go to the full chamber for consideration.
Similar legislation has been previously proposed in the Senate but has not advanced out of committee, Reuters reported.
The State Department's top diplomat for Latin America told a Senate committee Thursday that now isn't the appropriate time for sanctions and urged waiting for the outcome of talks between the opposition and the government, according to Reuters.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has reacted furiously to calls in the United States for punitive measures against his government for alleged rights abuses in response to three months of street protests, Reuters reported.
"Now they're going round with this stupid idea that they're going to sanction us," Maduro said late on Friday, using the word "estupidos" which has a stronger connotation in Spanish, according to Reuters. "It's hardly worth responding to the stupid things the imperialist elites in the north do. They can keep their threats and stupidities."
About 800 people have been injured and some 3,000 arrested, with more than 400 remaining behind bars in what Maduro has cast as the suppression of a coup attempt, but opponents say is a wave of repression, Reuters reported.
Last week's breakup of four student protest camps in Caracas, with the arrest of 243 youths, has revived tensions across Venezuela just as the movement appeared to be losing steam, according to Reuters. Students and supporters were marching on Saturday.
