Treasury Department issues General License 60 to aid Venezuela earthquake relief

The US Treasury Department is moving to issue General License 60 through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), creating a pathway for humanitarian organizations to support earthquake relief in Venezuela without running afoul of existing sanctions. The move comes after twin earthquakes devastated the South American nation on June 24, leaving a trail of destruction that Venezuelan authorities are still struggling to fully assess.

The earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale, struck northwestern and central Venezuela near San Felipe and Yaracuy at approximately 18:04 local time. At least 188 people are confirmed dead, more than 1,520 injured, and over 45,000 remain missing. Venezuela has declared a state of emergency as aftershocks continue to rattle the region.

What General License 60 actually does

General licenses are OFAC’s workaround. Rather than requiring every aid organization to apply for individual exemptions, a general license acts as a blanket authorization, telling banks, NGOs, and logistics companies they can do a specific thing without asking first.

General License 60 would authorize activities specifically tied to earthquake relief efforts, effectively carving a humanitarian corridor through the sanctions framework. Previous OFAC general licenses related to Venezuela have focused narrowly on oil-sector authorizations, making this a notable expansion in scope. Official confirmation of this license has not yet been made public, suggesting that details are still being finalized.

Without a general license, financial institutions typically block or reject transactions involving sanctioned jurisdictions, even when the intent is purely humanitarian. Banks are risk-averse by nature, and the penalties for sanctions violations can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. A general license removes that ambiguity.

The scale of the disaster

The twin earthquakes represent the most powerful seismic event to hit Venezuela since 1900. The 45,000 missing figure is particularly alarming. In earthquake disasters, the gap between “missing” and “confirmed dead” often narrows in the most devastating direction as rescue teams reach collapsed structures in remote areas.

Venezuela’s infrastructure was already under severe strain before the ground started shaking. Years of economic crisis, political instability, and the cumulative weight of international sanctions have degraded the country’s ability to respond to a disaster of this magnitude.

What this means for crypto and financial markets

The notable absence of any cryptocurrency or digital asset provisions in the relief framework is worth examining. Venezuela has one of the highest rates of crypto adoption in Latin America, driven in large part by the very economic pressures that sanctions have intensified. Yet the US government’s approach here is firmly traditional, with General License 60 focusing on conventional financial channels.

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