Miguel Antonio Munoz Palacios (Munoz) is the Deputy Director of the Maduro-aligned intelligence service Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia (SEBIN) since 2021.
SEBIN has carried out Maduro’s politically motivated arrests and detentions of opposition leaders, volunteers, poll workers, and election witnesses. Munoz is one of the top leaders of Venezuela’s Pitbull Group, a group consisting of SEBIN personnel from the General Directorate for Military Counterintelligence. The Pitbull Group was tasked to do the “dirty work,” and there were no legal parameters with what they were tasked to do. The Pitbull Group was also believed to be responsible for kidnapping and murders. The group likely kidnapped individuals to pressure them to give the Pitbull Group money. The Pitbull Group used that money for other operational purposes.
On July 10, 2015, OFAC issued the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 591 (the ‘‘Regulations’’) (80 FR 39676, July 10, 2015) to implement the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 (Pub. L. 113– 278) and Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015 (‘‘Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela’’) (E.O. 13692). The Regulations were published in abbreviated form for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. Since then, the President has issued six additional Executive orders pursuant to the national emergency declared in E.O. 13692: Executive Order 13808 of August 24, 2017 (‘‘Imposing Additional Sanctions With Respect to the Situation in Venezuela’’) (82 FR 41155, August 29, 2017); Executive Order 13827 of March 19, 2018 (‘‘Taking Additional Steps to Address the Situation in Venezuela’’) (83 FR 12469, March 21, 2018); Executive Order 13835 of May 21, 2018 (‘‘Prohibiting Certain Additional Transactions With Respect to Venezuela’’) (83 FR 24001, May 24, 2018); Executive Order 13850 of November 1, 2018 (‘‘Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela’’) (83 FR 55243, November 2, 2018); Executive Order 13857 of January 25, 2019 (‘‘Taking Additional Steps To Address the National Emergency With Respect to Venezuela’’) (84 FR 509, January 30, 2019); and Executive Order 13884 of August 5, 2019 (‘‘Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela’’) (84 FR 38843, August 7, 2019).
