{"id":1502067,"date":"2024-02-16T00:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T00:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=148102"},"modified":"2024-02-16T00:29:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T00:29:10","slug":"why-the-us-is-reimposing-sanctions-on-venezuela-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/16\/why-the-us-is-reimposing-sanctions-on-venezuela-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the US Is Reimposing Sanctions on Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even the US business magazine Forbes<\/em> expressed surprise<\/a> at the reimposition of US sanctions on Venezuela\u2019s gold sales and its threat to do the same with oil. The oil sanctions especially, if reinstated, would precipitate higher gas prices and further debilitate the Venezuelan economy, forcing more people to leave the country out of economic necessity.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan government, for its part, has not been contrite. Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez protested<\/a> \u201cthe wrong step of intensifying economic aggression against Venezuela.\u201d She warned that if Washington takes the threatened measures, Venezuela will cancel repatriation flights<\/a> returning Venezuelan immigrants back from the US.<\/p>\n

Is Biden shooting himself in the foot in an election year with major vulnerabilities from inflation and unpopular immigration? The New Times<\/em> describes<\/a> these weaknesses as a \u201cmajor crisis\u201d for the incumbent US president. Adding to the Democrats\u2019 woes, many Venezuelans in the US \u2013 driven here by sanctions \u2013support<\/a> Republicans.<\/p>\n

Barbados agreement temporarily eases sanctions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The State Department accused<\/a> the Venezuelan government of actions that are \u201cinconsistent\u201d with Barbados agreement, negotiated last October. This accord arranged a prisoner exchange with the US and the issuance of licenses allowing Venezuela to sell some of its own oil and gold. The agreement promised temporary and partial sanctions relief for Venezuela, although major coercive economic provisions were still left in place.<\/p>\n

Even with limited sanctions relief, Venezuela anticipated<\/a> a 27% increase in revenues for its state-run oil company. Experts predicted<\/a> a \u201cmoderate economic expansion\u201d after having experienced the greatest economic contraction in peacetime of any country in the modern era. Venezuela was on the road to recovery.<\/p>\n

Then on January 30, the US rescinded the license for gold sales and threatened to allow the oil license to expire on April 18, which could cost $1.6B in lost revenue<\/a>. The ostensible reason for the flip in US policy was the failure of the Venezuelan supreme court to overturn previous prohibitions on Maria Corina Machado and some other opposition politicians from running for public office.<\/p>\n

The Barbados agreement<\/a> was predicated on \u201celectoral guarantees.\u201d But there was no mention of specific individuals<\/em> who had been legally barred from running for office due to past offenses. In fact, these cases were well known. Venezuelan officials had repeatedly insisted that those disqualified would continue to be ineligible. According to H\u00e9ctor Rodr\u00edguez, a member of the Venezuelan government\u2019s delegation to Barbados, forgiveness for crimes<\/a> was never on the negotiating agenda.<\/p>\n

The case of opposition politician Maria Corina Machado<\/strong><\/p>\n

Machado\u2019s treatment by the Venezuelan government has arguably erred more on the side of leniency than severity. In most other countries, a person with her rap sheet would be behind bars<\/a>. In the US, for example, 467 individuals involved in the 2021 Capitol riot have been sentenced to incarceration<\/a> for offenses far less egregious than Machado\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Back in 2002, Machado signed the Carmona Decree, establishing a coup government. Venezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez had been deposed in a military coup backed by the US. The constitution was suspended, the legislature dismissed, and the supreme court shuttered.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for democracy in Venezuela, the coup lasted less than three days. The people spontaneously took to the streets and restored their elected government. Machado, who now incredulously claims she signed the coup government\u2019s founding decree mistakenly, was afforded amnesty.<\/p>\n

Machado was subsequently banned<\/a> from running from public office after she served as the diplomatic representative for Panama in order to testify against her own country. She was also implicated<\/a> in tax evasion and fraud along with coup attempts<\/a>. In addition, the hard-rightist had called for a military intervention by the US and for harsh economic coercive measures.<\/p>\n

Machado had adamantly refused<\/a> to contest her electoral ineligibility before the Venezuelan supreme court. But when Washington instructed<\/a> her to go before the tribunal, she obediently complied. That Machado\u2019s appeal would be denied was \u201cobvious<\/a>\u201d even to Luis Vicente Le\u00f3n, president of the pro-opposition Venezuelan polling company Datanalisis. He explained: \u201cIf we are honest, the US government knew full well this was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> described<\/a> the supreme court\u2019s decision to uphold her ban as \u201ca crippling blow to prospects for credible elections\u2026in exchange for the lifting of crippling US economic sanctions.\u201d In other words, the Venezuelans did not bow to blackmail<\/a> and allow a criminal to run for public office.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan opposition <\/strong><\/p>\n

Under-reported is how Machado became the<\/em> unofficially designated opposition candidate according to the corporate press. Normally in Venezuela opposition presidential primaries are run by the national election authorities, as they are in the US. Machado, however, engineered<\/a> the primary election to be run privately.<\/p>\n

The primaries were riddled with irregularities, and other opposition leaders are livid with Machado. Not only did her political alliance (Plataforma Unitaria) omit some opposition parties from the primaries, but voting records<\/a> were destroyed after the election. This prevented<\/a> any accounting when some members of her own coalition claimed fraud<\/a>. Further, the administration of the opposition primary involved S\u00famate. Machado was the founder and first president of this private non-governmental organization, a recipient of NED funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The opposition has lost credibility with even conservative political commentators in the US such as Ariel Cohen, associated with the Atlantic Council and the Heritage Foundation. He describes<\/a> the US seizure of the Venezuelan-owned oil subsidiary Citgo as part of its “asphyxiation tactics.” Handed over to the opposition, they ran Citgo to the ground and used their country\u2019s assets for personal gain.<\/p>\n

Sanctions \u201cdon\u2019t work\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington has a problem. Geoff Ramsey with the Atlantic Council revealingly laments<\/a>: \u201cHow do you threaten a regime that\u2019s endured years of crippling sanctions, multiple coup attempts and a failed mercenary invasion?\u201d The unfortunate Yankee solution is more of what Forbes<\/em> calls<\/a> \u201cWashington DC\u2019s heavy-handed response\u201d knowingly causing \u201cenormous\u201d human suffering.<\/p>\n

As a recent US Congressional Research Service report admitted<\/a>, the US sanctions \u201cfailed\u201d in their implicit goal of regime change but have exacerbated an economic crisis that \u201chas prompted 7.7 million Venezuelans to flee.\u201d The Hill<\/em> ran an opinion piece stating that \u201csanctions are still hurting everyday Venezuelans \u2013 and fueling migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Congressional Democrats have called<\/a> for ending US sanctions. Domestic corporations, such as Chevron<\/a>, have been clamoring to reopen the Venezuelan market. The UN has roundly condemned<\/a> sanctions, which they call \u201cunilateral coercive economic measures.\u201d Mexico insists<\/a> that Biden address the root causes of migration. Other governments in Latin America<\/a> and beyond<\/a> are pressuring the US to lift sanctions. Meanwhile, experts in international human rights law censure<\/a> Washington for illegal collective punishment.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the US economy would benefit more by promoting commerce with some 40 sanctioned<\/a> countries than from restricting trade. And the surest remedy for the immigration crisis<\/a> on the country\u2019s southern border is to end the sanctions, which are producing conditions that have compelled so many to leave their homes. Even US mainstream<\/a> media<\/a> has nearly universally concluded that sanctions \u201cdon\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The underlying purpose of sanctions on Venezuela<\/strong><\/p>\n

If sanctions \u201cdon\u2019t work,\u201d if they are economically counterproductive, and if they cause so much suffering and ill will, why impose them? The regrettable answer is that sanctions do \u201cwork\u201d for the purposes of the US empire.<\/p>\n

In 2015 President Obama declared<\/a> a \u201cnational emergency.\u201d Venezuela, he claimed, posed an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat\u201d to the national security of the US. That was not fake news. The imperial hegemon recognizes the \u201cthreat of a good example\u201d posed by a country such as Venezuela. As Ricardo Vaz of Venezuelanalysis<\/em> observed<\/a>, Venezuela is \u201ca beacon of hope for the Global South, and Latin America in particular, an affront to US hegemony in its own \u2018backyard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201crules-based order\u201d is threatened, especially with the emergence of China as a major world economic power. In the imperial worldview, it is better to have failed states like Libya and Afghanistan than the anathema of a sovereign and socialist Venezuela.<\/p>\n

In short, sanctions are a tool to prevent states striving for socialism from succeeding. The US-imposed misery on Venezuela is used by Washington as a cautionary warning of the consequences for a sovereign socialist project in defiance of Yankee domination.<\/p>The post Why the US Is Reimposing Sanctions on Venezuela<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even the US business magazine Forbes expressed surprise at the reimposition of US sanctions on Venezuela\u2019s gold sales and its threat to do the same with oil. The oil sanctions especially, if reinstated, would precipitate higher gas prices and further debilitate the Venezuelan economy, forcing more people to leave the country out of economic necessity. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Why the US Is Reimposing Sanctions on Venezuela<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74234,55,36,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502844,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502067\/revisions\/1502844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}