US sanctions on Venezuela are largely symbolic

The oil market was waiting for an embargo. But a full blockade would have hurt American firms too

Donald Trump's administration threatened "strong and swift economic sanctions" if Nicolás Maduro went ahead with his power-grab-by-plebiscite. The Venezuelan president did—and the US response was heavy in symbolism, but light in effect. The oil sanctions awaited by the market did not happen. US officials called Maduro a "dictator", and added his name to a growing list of Venezuelans, and a short list of heads of state, under American sanctions. Maduro's assets in the US, if he has any, are frozen and no Americans are allowed to do business with him. But the oil industry, Maduro's biggest vulnerability, was untouched. Some kind of embargo on Venezuelan oil remains in the US' arsenal, but it n