Tuesday, March 05, 2024 – The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on three entities and 11 people, including the Mnangagwas, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and retired Brig. Gen. Walter Tapfumaneyi.
Mnangagwa is accused of protecting gold and diamond smugglers who operate in
Zimbabwe, directing government officials to facilitate the sale of gold and
diamonds in illicit markets and taking bribes in exchange for his services,
among other offenses.
President Joe Biden also Monday signed an
executive order that terminates Zimbabwe’s national emergency and revokes
Zimbabwe-specific sanctions. Now, the administration is using a Trump-era
executive order that implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act as its authority to issue the sanctions.
Treasury Deputy Secretary, Wally Adeyemo
said the changes to Zimbabwe’s sanctions regime “are intended to make clear
what has always been true: our sanctions are not intended to target the people
of Zimbabwe.”
“Today we are refocusing our sanctions on
clear and specific targets: President Mnangagwa’s criminal network of
government officials and businesspeople who are most responsible for corruption
or human rights abuse against the people of Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe’s government spokesman Nick
Mangwana tweeted in response to the sanctions that “as long as senior
leadership is under sanctions, we are all under sanctions. And as long as
members of Corporate Zimbabwe are under Sanctions, we are under Sanctions.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
in a statement that the designations “are part of a stronger, more targeted
sanctions policy towards Zimbabwe the United States is implementing.”
“Key individuals, including members of the
Government of Zimbabwe, bear responsibility for these actions, including the
looting of government coffers that robs Zimbabweans of public resources,” he
said.
Mnangagwa was sworn in for a second
term as Zimbabwe’s president last September.
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