U.S. impose sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned bank

The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on state-owned Venezuelan development bank Bandes in response to the arrest of an aide to opposition leader Juan Guaido, saying the government had used it to prop itself up by moving assets abroad.

"(President Nicolas) Maduro and his enablers have distorted the original purpose of the bank ... as part of a desperate attempt to hold onto power," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the action.