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Case No. VENEZUELA-EO13884-2023-1031848-1
Natascha Finnerty
Office of Science and Research
Smithsonian Institution
Capital Gallery D Street SW
P.O. Box 37012 MRC09
Washington, D.C. 20013
Dear Ms. Finnerty:
This letter responds to your request, dated February 21, 2023, on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution (“Smithsonian”), to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (the “Application™), requesting authorization to invite Dr. Santos Miguel Nmiio and Daniela Canelén Barraez, as fellows of the Smithsonian Institution, Department of Botany. We understand from the Application that Dr. Santos Miguel Nifio and Daniela Canelén Barraez are employed by the Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora (UNELLEZ), a public university controlled by the Government of Venezuela (“GOV”) in Guanare, Edo. Portuguesa, Venezuela.
As you know, Executive Order 13884, “Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela,” issued on August 5,...
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1) OFAC addresses a request from the Smithsonian Institution in which Smithsonian Institution seeks to invite as fellows two individuals “employed by the Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora (UNELLEZ), a public university controlled by the Government of Venezuela (“GOV”) in Guanare, Edo. Portuguesa, Venezuela.” The purpose would be “continue an ongoing botanical collaboration”. EO 13884 blocks the Government of Venezuela and features a definition of GOV such that individual employees of GOV entities are, themselves, regarded as meeting the definition of GOV (see e.g. Enforcement Release - Banco Popular de Puerto Rico). Notwithstanding the foregoing, Venezuela General License 34A authorizes “all transactions and activities prohibited by [EO] 13884 involving one or more individuals who meet the definition of the "Government of Venezuela"…provided that the individuals are…[c]urrent employees [or] contractors of the Government of Venezuela who...