CARACAS, Nov 29, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Venezuela's parliament on Thursday passed a law punishing support for sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro's regime by up to 30 years in prison, part of a widening crackdown on dissent in the Caribbean country.

The law states that anyone who "promotes, instigates, requests, invokes, favors, facilitates, supports or participates in the adoption of coercive measures... will be punished with imprisonment of 25 to 30 years."

It foresees similar punishments for anyone who supports, or participates in, "armed or forceful actions" against the country.

Individuals who fall foul of the law face fines of between $100,000 and $1 million and, in the case of politicians, being barred from public office for 60 years.

Media outlets that spread pro-sanctions "propaganda" could also lose their broadcasting license.

Maduro said it aimed to "set limits faced with the treacherous attitude of a small section" of the population, who had become "lackeys" of foreign powers.

The "Liberator Simon Bolivar Act," named after Venezuela's 19th century independence hero, is Venezuela's answer to a new set of US sanctions currently making its way through Congress, also dubbed the BOLIVAR act.

The bill bars US federal agencies from conducting business with the Maduro regime or its associates in response to Venezuela's bitterly disputed July 28 election.

The United States recognised opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner of the election, in which Maduro claims he won a third six-year term.

On Wednesday, Washington imposed asset freezes on 21 top Venezuelan security and cabinet officials over the campaign of repression that followed the election.

At least 28 people were killed, almost 200 injured and around 2,400 demonstrators arrested in protests that erupted after Maduro was proclaimed the winner, despite results published by the opposition appearing to show their man winning by a landslide.

Earlier this week, the United States' allies within the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations -- Canada, Italy, Germany, Britain, Japan and France -- said they too considered Gonzalez Urrutia the rightful winner of the election.

- Maximum pressure -

After Venezuela's last disputed elections in 2018, which were also tainted by allegations of fraud, then president Donald Trump applied a policy of maximum pressure on Maduro.

He imposed an embargo on oil from the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves but it did nothing to loosen Maduro's grip on power.

The measures were later softened by Biden only to be reinstated in April after Maduro failed to take steps demanded by Washington to ensure free and fair elections.

Maduro, who was handpicked by iconic Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez to succeed him on his death in 2013, is accused by his critics of driving the economy into the ground and if turning his country into a pariah on the international stage.

More than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens have emigrated since he came to power.