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No End to US Sanctions War on Venezuela Under Biden

Written by Subject: Venezuela

No End US Sanctions War on Venezuela under Biden

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

US sanctions wars are all about wanting economies of targeted countries crushed, their people suffocated into submission to Washington.

Whenever unilaterally imposed, unlawful sanctions fail to achieve intended aims, yet continue anyway.

Around three dozen world community nations are targeted by the US this way.

They include Cuba (since 1962), Iran (since 1979), Syria (since 1979), Russia (since 2014), China (since 2017), North Korea (since 2006), Myanmar, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Venezuela (since 2006), among others.

Against Bolivarian Venezuela, their main goal is replacing its social democracy with US controlled fascist tyranny.

Washington also aims to gain control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the world's largest.

Whenever imposed, sanctions are based on Big Lies.

Against Venezuela's social democracy, they're related to nonexistent terrorism, drugs trafficking, anti-democratic actions, human rights violations, corruption, and human trafficking.

The Obama/Biden regime falsely called Venezuela "an unusual and extraordinary threat" -- a bald-faced Big Lie about Bolivarian social democracy.

All of the above apply to Washington and its imperial partners, not Venezuela or other nations on the US target list for regime change.

In early February, a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said sanctions imposed by Washington caused Venezuela's economy to steeply contract since 2015 -- especially by "limiting revenue from oil production," the country's main export, obstructing its international financial transactions, and stealing its assets.

According to the GAO, Venezuela's economic growth fell from -6.2% percent of GDP in 2015 to -35% in 2019.

According to Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) co-director Mark Weisbrot:

The GAO report "offers more evidence that these unilateral, illegal US sanctions are a form of collective punishment against the Venezuelan population and should be ended immediately." 

"There is no reason to allow this crime from the Trump administration to continue."

Biden's policies toward Venezuela continue Trump's harshness.

Recognition of widely despised usurper-in-waiting Guido is unchanged.

In early February, Blinken spokesman Price said Biden won't "engag(e) with Maduro."

"We certainly don't expect any contact with Maduro anytime soon." -- even though he was and remains democratically elected and reelected president.

Blinken said Biden will escalate (unlawful) sanctions war on the country and its people.

Like others in Washington past and present, Price falsely called model democrat Maduro "a dictator (sic)."

Hugo Chavez was falsely demonized the same way, Vladimir Putin is maligned in similar fashion.

US sanctions war bears full responsibility for humanitarian hardships in the country, including by US grand theft of billions of dollars of Venezuelan revenue and assets.

According to the CEPR, over 40,000 Venezuelans died from US sanctions in 2017 and 2018 alone.

Following her visit to Venezuela this month, UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douha, reported on what she found.

Venezuelan officials facilitated her visit. They engaged with her in frank and open dialogue on conditions in the country.

Europe and Canada partnered with Trump's war on Venezuela by other means -- continued by Biden.

Douha stressed that multiple rounds of US sanctions breached 

Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that states:

"In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, color, sex, language, religion or social origin."

The UN Charter and other international law also prohibit nations from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries -- what US sanctions do against all invented enemies.

Douha stressed that US sanctions against Venezuela's oil, financial, and other economic sectors flagrantly breached international law.

She denounced Central Bank of Venezuela asset freezes.

She condemned seizure of Venezuelan financial assets by US, UK, and other Western banks -- even for buying food, medicines, and other essentials to life.

These and other lawless actions constitute crimes against humanity, notably aiming to starve and otherwise suffocate Venezuelans into submission.

Nothing remotely justifies US war on Venezuela by other means.

It continues against ordinary Venezuelans with no prospect for ending it under Biden.

Douha stressed that unlawful US sanctions gravely harmed millions in the country.

Biden/Harris continue what Obama/Biden initiated, greatly escalated by Trump with no end of immiserating the Venezuelan people in prospect.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My two Wall Street books are timely reading:

"How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion, and Class War"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/how-wall-street-fleeces-america/

"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/banker-occupation-waging-financial-war-on-humanity/

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