Sanctions and asset seizures are not neutral tools. They are weapons of empire. Venezuela and Russia stand at the center of this economic warfare, but they are not alone. From Iraq to Libya, nations have been stripped of their wealth, their citizens punished, and their sovereignty undermined. What emerges is a global system where confiscation and coercion replace dialogue and democracy.

Venezuela’s Stolen Gold

At the Bank of England, more than 31 tonnes of Venezuelan gold — worth over $1.5–2 billion — remain frozen in a legal battle between President Nicolás Maduro’s government and opposition figure Juan Guaidó. Maduro sought to use this gold to fund health services during the COVID‑19 crisis, but access was denied.¹ Similar disputes extend to European banks, where Venezuelan reserves are locked away, preventing the government from addressing humanitarian needs.²

This is not law; it is strangulation. Sovereign wealth has been transformed into hostage property.

Russia and Venezuela: Assets Denied, Infrastructure Crippled

Both nations face frozen reserves abroad, resources that could sustain hospitals, schools, and public works. Instead, billions sit idle in foreign vaults, while ordinary citizens endure shortages and collapsing infrastructure. Sovereign wealth is held hostage, denied to the very populations it was meant to serve.

Turning Citizens Against Their Own Governments

In Venezuela, sanctions and propaganda campaigns redirect public anger toward domestic leadership rather than external interference. Scarcity is weaponized, creating the illusion that the government alone is responsible for hardship. This is democracy eroded under the guise of humanitarian concern.

Exile and Regime Change Narratives

Exiled Venezuelans, backed by foreign powers, lobby for intervention and overthrow. Their rhetoric of “liberation” masks the reality of destabilization and bloodshed. The pattern echoes Iraq and Libya, where external actors used exile communities to justify intervention.

Historical Parallels: Iraq and Libya

Iraq (1990–2003): UN sanctions barred trade, froze assets, and devastated civilian life. Surveys estimated between 227,000 and 500,000 excess child deaths under the age of five during the sanctions era.³⁴

Libya (2011–present): Sanctions froze the assets of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), Africa’s largest sovereign wealth fund. More than $68 billion remains frozen globally, unable to be reinvested for the Libyan people.⁵ Other reports suggest the total frozen assets may exceed $200 billion.⁶

These precedents show how sanctions and asset seizures are preludes to deeper destabilization, often justified by humanitarian rhetoric but resulting in humanitarian catastrophe.

Sanctions as Collective Punishment

Sanctions imposed by multiple countries extend beyond governments to entire populations. Livelihoods are restricted, futures constrained, and sovereignty undermined. The supposed moral high ground of sanctions collapses under the weight of their human toll.

Stirring the Flames of Global Conflict

Asset seizures and sanctions ripple outward, stoking tensions across continents. Economic warfare bleeds into military confrontation, pushing the world toward perpetual conflagration. What emerges is not stability, but a planet perpetually on fire.

Conclusion: The Human Cost of Hostage Property

When sovereign assets are seized, they become hostage property. Locked away in foreign vaults, they are denied to the very people who need them most. It is not presidents or elites who suffer from these sanctions — it is the poor, the marginalized, the mothers who cannot find medicine for their children, the workers whose wages collapse, the elders whose pensions vanish into thin air.

Sanctions do not kill presidents. They do not wound the wealthy, nor silence the powerful. Instead, they starve the powerless, punish the innocent, and deepen inequality.

This is the cruel paradox: sanctions are justified as tools of justice, yet they inflict injustice on those least able to bear it. They are proclaimed as instruments of democracy, yet they erode the very foundations of democratic life.

If humanity is to reclaim conscience, it must reject this system of collective punishment. Sovereign wealth must serve the people, not be held hostage. And the world must remember sanctions burn the poor, not the powerful.

Endnotes:

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.