WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved new sanctions Wednesday against Venezuela, instructing the Obama administration to compile a list of human rights abusers in the government, freeze any assets they hold in American banks and ban them from entering the United States.

The bill, passed by voice vote, raises the stakes in Congress’ efforts to hold Venezuelan authorities accountable for a crackdown against protesters that has raged since February. Forty-two people have been killed, with the violence heightening tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela that have persisted unabated since the death last year of the South American country’s former leader Hugo Chavez.

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