On 8 March 2015, US President Barack Obama issued a new Executive Order (“Order”) authorizing the imposition of sanctions targeting Venezuela in response to the Venezuelan Government’s erosion of human rights guarantees; persecution of political opponents; curtailment of press freedoms; use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to antigovernment protests; arbitrary arrest and detention of antigovernment protestors; and the exacerbating presence of significant public corruption in the country. According to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the Order “will be used to protect the US financial system from the illicit financial flows from public corruption in Venezuela” (statement of Secretary Lew on the Order). The Order was issued pursuant to various legal authorities, including the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 (described in our posts of 16 December and 19 December 2014). The White House has published a Fact Sheet about the Order.