The U.S., the U.K. and Canada last week issued a range of new sanctions to mark the internationally recognized Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, designating people across more than 10 jurisdictions for their ties to human rights violations. They include U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials with ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including one designated under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.

The U.S. and the U.K. this week sanctioned two Russians involved in phishing campaigns against the U.K. to undermine the country’s “democratic processes.” The sanctions target Aleksandrovich Peretyatko, a Russian Federal Security Service officer, and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, a Russian information technology worker.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 13 people and companies responsible for handling millions of dollars of Iranian sales revenue or for arranging shipments of Iranian commodities to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. The sanctions target Iran-linked people and entities involved in a “complex network of exchange houses” and businesses across several countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, St. Kitts, Russia and the U.K.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 15 Mexican people and two companies linked to the Beltran Leyva Organization, one of the world’s “most powerful” drug trafficking groups. The designations were announced during a trip by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Mexico City, where she discussed strengthening U.S.-Mexican efforts to counter fentanyl trafficking, and came after the agency launched a new, multi-agency Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force that it said will improve how the U.S. targets drug traffickers with sanctions and civil and criminal penalties.

Senior State Department official Brian Nichols met with staff members from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 6 to seek their input on U.S. sanctions policy toward Venezuela, according to a State Department spokesperson.

The State Department is offering up to a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Artem Aleksandrovich Uss, a Russian national who allegedly tried to violate U.S. export controls and sanctions. The agency said Uss used German industrial equipment company Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH to illegally export millions of dollars worth of military and sensitive dual-use technologies from the U.S. to Russia. He was also accused of using the U.S. financial system for payments related to the smuggling of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 11 companies and eight people connected to the Alexander Lukashenko-led government in Belarus and what OFAC said is its “brutal suppression” of civil society, corruption and complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The designations target various state-controlled firms and others supporting the Lukashenko regime.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three former Sudanese officials who are undermining the peace, security and stability of Sudan. The designations target Taha Osman Ahmed al-Hussei, a former state minister, Salah Abdallah Mohamed Salah, a former “high-ranking” government official, and Mohamed Etta Elmoula Abbas, a former Sudanese Ambassador and leader of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service. All three worked under the government led by former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in a coup in 2019, and have tried to help return the al-Bashir regime to power.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week updated one entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List that is listed for being a Russia-related secondary sanctions risk. The change updates identifying information for Meroe Gold Co. LTD, which was sanctioned in 2020 for being a subsidiary of M Invest, a Russian company owned by now deceased Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Guatemalan ex-official last week for engaging in widespread bribery schemes, including schemes related to government contracts, OFAC said in a news release. Luis Miguel Martinez Morales is former head of the now-defunct Centro de Gobierno, and used that position to influence the “government contracts process to benefit himself and close associates,” OFAC said. He also “solicited large kickbacks to facilitate the purchase of the Russian Sputnik V vaccines by the Government of Guatemala,” OFAC said. Martinez was designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the agency said.