I imagine they can, but I don't know.
I can't image Venezuela could have done this without the help of the NEM team though.
This is pretty horrendous in all honesty. Crypto was meant to defeat such regimes, not enable them. This puts NEM in a horrendous light.
You do raise some good points. I'm not sure "Crypto" has values (ethical or otherwise) on its own. It's a technology and as such would be value neutral and very dependent on the people operating it.
I would be interested in hearing some kind of statement from NEM about its involvement/support of the Venezuelan Petro.