The Biden administration said Friday it was offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, after he took a third term despite evidence suggesting he lost Venezuela’s recent election.
The announcement was a measure of retaliation by Washington, which does not recognize Mr. Maduro as the true president of Venezuela. Mr. Maduro has not provided evidence that he won the July election, while his opponent is Edmundo González presented thousands of the publicly available vote totals it says they indicate he won easily the most votes.
The United States has said Mr González is Venezuela’s president-elect and has called on Mr Maduro to step down.
The Biden administration also announced it was extending protections to the roughly 600,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the United States with temporary protected status. The measure allows those who apply to stay for an additional 18 months.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the decision to increase Mr. Maduro’s reward was part of a “coordinated message of solidarity with the Venezuelan people” that was meant to “further strengthen international efforts to maintain pressure on Mr. Maduro and his representatives .”
Such rewards are generally considered more symbolic than a serious attempt to achieve an arrest. The $25 million reward is an increase from the $15 million reward set by the Trump administration in 2020.
But the measure did nothing to prevent Mr. Maduro from taking a third six-year term. And some critics have even argued that this reward strategy has further entrenched Mr Maduro by making it harder for him to step down.
If he leaves the presidency, he would be extremely vulnerable to arrest.
The extension of temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants was described by a representative of the Biden administration as an attempt to support the Venezuelan people.
The program was signed by George HW Bush to help people who could not return to their countries due to natural disaster or armed conflict. President-elect Donald J. Trump, who will be sworn in on January 20, is vowed to finish program.
Biden’s representative, who held a press briefing on condition of anonymity, said high levels of crime and violence — as well as barriers to access to food, medicine, health care, water, electricity and fuel — prevent many people from being able to return safely.
In 2020, Mr. Maduro has been indicted in the United States, accused of decades of narco-terrorism and an international cocaine-trafficking conspiracy.
Ministry of Justice formal accusation against a foreign head of state was an unusual move that signaled that the United States was likely to take an increasingly hard line toward Mr. Maduro.
At that point, the State Department announced an initial reward of $15 million. Mr. Maduro remains under indictment.
Officials from the Biden administration said Friday that the United States would also offer $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Interior Secretary Diosdado Cabello, up from $10 million.
And the State Department added another reward: $15 million to help apprehend Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
Just a few minutes after Mr. As Maduro was sworn in for another term on Friday, the US Treasury Department also said it was imposing new sanctions on eight Venezuelan officials, adding to the roughly 180 Maduro allies and other Venezuelans already under sanctions.
The measures freeze assets held by officials in the United States.
“The United States and its allies in the region pushed Maduro to commit to a democratic transition,” Bradley T. Smith, a Treasury official, said in a statement. “Instead, Maduro and his representatives have continued their violent repression in an attempt to maintain power and have ignored the Venezuelan people’s calls for democratic accountability.”
David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
