WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration Tuesday forged ahead in what one analyst called "a complicated chess game" of handing more of Venezuela's assets in the United States over to its interim president, seeking to tighten the economic stranglehold on the embattled government of Nicolas Maduro.
Washington worked furiously this week to isolate Maduro and allow National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, internationally recognized as the interim president of Venezuela, to control the nation's vital oil trade that supplies nearly 6,000 U.S. gas stations under the Citgo brand.
The State Department certified that Guaido has authority to control all Venezuelan government bank accounts in the U.S. financial system, giving him access to any cash or gold Venezuela may be holding in U.S. banks. Last week, the Bank of England denied Maduro permission to withdraw more than $1 billion in gold Venezuela holds there, noting that the U.K. no longer recognizes him as the country's head of state.
