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News > Venezuela

US Gloats Own Actions to Economically Ruin Venezuela

  • Since 2017, the Trump Administration has imposed over 150 sanctions against Venezuela.

    Since 2017, the Trump Administration has imposed over 150 sanctions against Venezuela. | Photo: Reuters

Published 6 May 2019
Opinion

The official document published on April 24, 2019, issued by the State Department, comprises all the measures, both economic and diplomatic, taken by the U.S. in the last two years against Venezuela.

The United States (U.S) government’s involvement in the destabilization attempts against Venezuela can no longer be denied or ignored after a document has resurfaced regarding its central role in the operations aimed to oust the legitimate and democratically elected government of the Latin American nation. 

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US Economic Bullying Devastates Venezuela: Ilhan Omar Denounces

The official document published on April 24, 2019, issued by the State Department, comprises all the measures, both economic and diplomatic, taken by the U.S. in the last two years against Venezuela. However, most revealing is what the document states as “key outcomes”, which gloats on what the State Department understands as accomplishments in its interventionist agenda. 

According to media outlet The Grayzone, this factsheet was taken down by the State Department immediately after its release “after realizing the incriminating nature of its error,” the investigation reports. Although true, teleSUR found that the document is still published in its entirety in the official website of the U.S. Embassy in Brazil. 

The document details that the U.S. government has made over 150 sanction designations to individuals and entities in Venezuela since 2017 via Executive Orders (E.O.) and the so-called Kingpin Act. This includes 10 sets of designations in 2019 alone to multiple individuals, entities, and listings of properties.

It continues to list the State Department’s self-described “key outcomes for 2019” which include an economic hitlist describing the illegal seizure of the refiner Citgo, over US$3.2 billion in overseas assets frozen, the political pressure to deter third parties to take Venezuelan gold and buy the country's oil. 

The "Fact Sheet: U.S. Actions on Venezuela" is still published on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Brazil.

“They’re proud of saying that we are destroying the economy of our neighbor; we are proud that we destroyed the political system of our neighbor; we are proud that they are suffering. They are saying we are waging war against Venezuela,” Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Samuel Moncada told The Grayzone.

The report, 'Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela', made by Columbia University economist, Jeffrey Sachs, and Mark Weisbrot from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that over US$15 billion in Venezuelan government assets are locked up due to the U.S.'s sanctions preventing the nation from exporting and importing, including food and medicine. 

Since 2017 alone, an estimated 80,000 people with HIV have not had access to their antiretroviral treatment and another four million with diabetes and hypertension can’t obtain their insulin or cardiovascular medicine. “A lot of the policies we have put in place have helped lead the devastation in Venezuela,” U.S. congresswoman Ilhan Omar said on May 1. 

Yet for the U.S. government, this is a sought-out result. The fact sheet also brags on the fact that lawmaker Juan Guaido went ahead to unconstitutionally self-proclaim as “interim president,” yet by reporting it as a key outcome the State Department is admitting its guiding hand behind the whole spectacle. And although Guaido lacks any sort of support by the people or the armed forces, the U.S. backing was enough to push for a failed coup attempt on April 30.

“What is the point of having international law, what is the point to having the United Nations,” international analyst Marcus Papadopoulos told teleSUR after questioning the role of the U.S. powering an illegal coup attempt.   

As the list of confessions go on, it candidly admits diplomatic pressure on all international bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the U.N., and even those that the North American country doesn't even belong to such as the Group of Lima and the European Union. “They are so far out of any normal parameters of decency, morality, legality, reason, that really they are dangerous,” Moncada emphasized.

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