The United States announced new individual sanctions Wednesday on more than 20 officials aligned with Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, to put pressure on Maduro to accept the results of Venezuela’s July presidential election,

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States has imposed sanctions on an additional 21 allies of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, accusing them on Wednesday of perpetrating some of the repression with which officials in the country responded to July's disputed presidential election.

In September, the United States announced sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials over alleged election fraud. They included senior figures in the Venezuelan electoral council and Supreme Court, with the US Treasury saying at the time that they "impeded a transparent electoral process and the release of accurate election results."