The Use of Sanctions as a Weapon of Mass Destruction


All over the media you find a lot of experts saying the Maduro’s government in Venezuela is an utter economic disaster. However, there is one single country that by no means thinks Maduro’s administration could be depicted in that way, and that country is the United States of America.

If an entity is such a failure and you want to get rid of it, the most logic thing to do is to let it collapse on its own. But, the US fearful of any kind of success of the left leaning Chavista government, has been in the necessity of imposing the most cruel and criminal actions on that country. MLK once stated, the US is the main purveyor of violence on the world, and Noam Chomsky has said the US drone program is the number one program of terrorism on the planet. However, bombing is just one way how the US murders people, the other way is by imposition of sanctions.

The U.S. Congressional Research Service stated additional economic sanctions could worsen humanitarian conditions in Venezuela, and that is exactly what the US is going after [CongressionalResearchCenter]. In fact, it was determined Venezuela lost $350.000 million in production of goods and services between 2013 y 2017 just due to the US sanctions [CELAG].

We must never forget half a million of children died in 90’s with the US sanctions on Iraq but Madeleine Albrightthe, the US secretary of State, stated that price is worth it, referring to taking down the Iraqi government [PrimeValvoloid]. That was on the 90’s but more recently examples would be, the secretary of state Mike Pompeo stated that the sanctions would have a adverse effect on the people of Venezuela [Marti]. And also, William Browfield, former ambassador on Venezuela, took pride saying sanctions bring tragedy and suffering on millions on Venezuela but the wanted goal justifies that sever punishment [DemocracyNow]. And make no mistake, the US knows what is doing, like when Pompeo told Iran they better listen to the US if they want their people to eat [NewsPunch].

Because, its not just about the fact Citgo profits cannot be cashed or countries like Paraguay and Brazil don’t pay for the energy they are provided by Venezuela because of the US sanctions. And pretty much, whatever money the Venezuelan state is entitled to, is blocked by the US. It’s not neither about the fact the sanctions on Venezuela have caused negative effect on Venezuela’s sports and culture. For example, 14 boxers were not able to assist to the boxing qualification games in Tijuana CAC 2018 due to conflicts with airlines, and later with governments comping with US requests [BoxeoTotal]. Similar effects had on other sport areas like volley, rugby and wrestling. On the cultural side, we can mention the Italian bank Intensa Sanpaolo blocking funds for the participation of Venezuela on the XVI Bienal of Architecture [Celag].

The main purpose of the sanctions the US import is the crime against humankind they provoke. The next examples are cases that refer only and exclusively to the sanction effects, which is only one part of the multi layer economic war on Venezuela. Pretty much companies such pfizer y Novartis don’t sell medicine to Venezuela because of the US sanction. One of the most cruel cases was back on November 2017, during a malaria outbreak, BSN Medical canceled a purchase of vaccines for this illness. Just let’s think consider that on the 3rd week of November 2018 alone, 23 financial operations to purchase medicine for Venezuela, did not proceed due to the US sanctions [TeleSur]. Also, take into account, almost all banks don process transactions for Venezuela but specially the purchase of food [HispnTV]. The most prominent case is Euroclear that has Venzuelan funds frozen, fund that were destined to the purchase of food. Consider on December of 2017, 2200 tons of pork were retained by Colombia, with the full intention of ruined the Venezuelan’s Christmas dinner [TeleSur].

The UN itself has condemned theses criminal illegal attacks against Venezuela [TeleSur]. And also, experts have state the sanctions against Venezuela are violation of the Rome statute Art 7, and also a violation of HHRR [UN].

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