PANAMA CITY — From Mexico to Brazil, leaders in Latin America have largely kept silent amid charges of human rights abuses in Venezuela and are unlikely to speak out against their neighbor at this week’s Summit of the Americas.
Many Latin American heads of state gathering in Panama City are bound to oil-rich Venezuela by business dealings if not ideology, and are put off by recent US sanctions against some of the country’s officials. Others do not want to be seen as doing Washington’s bidding, particularly as they face protests and poor approval ratings at home.
‘‘Venezuela has successfully played the history of US imperialism and US heavy-handedness cards, in a way that has made people want to back away from public criticism,’’ said Geoff Thale, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America.
The Obama administration last month froze the US assets and revoked visas for seven senior officials accused of human rights violations related to protests last year against President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
The unrest is blamed for more than 40 deaths and triggered a crackdown on criticism that led to the jailing of several opposition leaders, including the February arrest of Mayor Antonio Ledezma of Caracas.
Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups issued a statement Tuesday asking the countries attending the summit to call Maduro’s administration to task for its alleged harassment of rights defenders.
But rather than highlight alleged abuses, the US sanctions have drawn widespread condemnation in Latin America, denying Obama a diplomatic victory lap at the summit for his decision to restore ties with Cold War nemesis Cuba.
A reference to Venezuela as a threat to US national security included in the sanctions declaration is standard bureaucratic language for the United States, but disturbing to a region with a long history of US interference, from support for past military regimes to efforts to topple leftist governments.
Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes said Tuesday at a White House briefing that the language in the executive order was the same typically used when the US levies sanctions around the world.
‘‘The US doesn’t believe that Venezuela poses some threat to national security,’’ Rhodes said. The action, he added, ‘‘was not of a scale that in any way was aimed at targeting the Venezuelan government broadly.’’
The US action has been breathing new life into Maduro’s government just as a plunge in oil prices looked set to deepen economic turmoil marked by widespread shortages and 68 percent inflation rate.