U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced the United States would expand its existing sanctions against Venezuela with an executive order to impose a total economic embargo against the country.

The embargo freezes assets of the government of Venezuela and associated entities and prohibits economic transactions with it, unless specifically exempted. Exemptions include official business of the federal government and transactions related to the provision of humanitarian aid.

The executive order marks an escalation from the already expansive U.S. measures against the Venezuelan Government since the start of the country’s chaotic political and economic crisis earlier this year. It is also the first major expansion of sanctions against a Western hemisphere nation by the U.S. in over 30 years, and is intended to put Venezuela into the same level of economic isolation as similarly restricted Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

The order cites human rights abuses, and the fact that President Nicolas Maduro is still in power in Venezuela, even though the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful ruler of the country.

U.S. sanctions already in place on Venezuela’s national oil company have accelerated a collapse in the country’s oil output.

(SD-Agencies)