Latin American countries have agreed to place sanctions on certain members of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's administration but said they do not support the use of force to remove Maduro from office, Reuters reported.
The move enables governments to freeze assets within their countries belonging to individuals linked to the embattled Venezuelan president.
"This allows countries in the region to, through collective action, create the conditions for the Venezuelan people to live freely sooner rather than later. It's a transcendental step of great significance in favor of peace and legality," Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Colombia's foreign minister, reportedly said.
According to Reuters, several countries in the region previously did not have legal mechanisms to carry out sanctions or travel bans on officials from Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the Lima Group, the multilateral body of 14 countries in the Americas, said it encouraged the "adoption of new sanctions or other economic and political measures against the Maduro regime," but that it opposed any military intervention to oust the leader.
Most Latin American countries, along with the U.S. and other Western countries, have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate ruler.
