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<h1 id="reader-title">UN Independent Expert: Sanctions Must be
Terminated and Economic War Must End</h1>
Jan 25th 2018</div>
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<p><strong>Interview with Professor Dr iur. et phil.
Alfred M. de Zayas, UN Independent Expert on the
Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable
International Order.</strong></p>
<p>From 26 November to 4 December 2017, Professor Dr
Alfred M. de Zayas carried out an official mission in
Venezuela. He had requested an invitation in August,
which the Venezuelan Government granted in September,
making him the first UN rapporteur since 1996 to be
invited and to conduct an official UN visit to
Venezuela. The purpose of the mission was to explore
how the Bolivarian Revolution had implemented human
rights – especially in the economic, social and
cultural domain. It was his special concern to compare
the coverage in the mainstream media of the United
States and Europe with the Venezuelan reality on the
ground. In order to get a sufficiently objective
picture, the UN expert met with representatives and
activists of 35 non-governmental organizations
specializing on human rights issues, with
representatives of industry and commerce, members of
the opposition National Assembly, with Church
officials, with victims of violent demonstrations and
with relatives of detainees. Apart from meetings with
a large number of government ministers, he met twice
with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and his staff.
During his stay he could move freely, as has already
been reported in “Zeitgeschehen im Fokus” (n. 18,
23/12/2017). He also gave a lecture at the University
of Caracas. In the following interview, the UN expert
reports about his impressions and experience in
Venezuela.</p>
<p><strong>Zeitgeschehen im Fokus: How would you assess
the economic situation in Venezuela after you have
stayed there?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Professor Alfred de Zayas</strong> The
Bolivarian Revolution, which has taken place in
Venezuela, developed a model that worked rather well
in the first 10 years. That was partly due to the high
oil price. Venezuela depends on oil revenues by 95 %.
With these revenues, the state could finance many
social projects. But now that the oil price has
dropped by more than the half, the country faces
massive disruptions in the acquisition and
distribution of food, medicines and other products.</p>
<p><strong>What distinguishes the model in Venezuela?</strong></p>
<p>It is a social model that wants to achieve a fairer
distribution of the country’s wealth. Meanwhile, 2
million homes have been handed over to the poorer part
of the population. Thus at least 8 million persons
have benefitted from affordable apartments. There is
also the so-called system of CLAP (Comité Local de
Abastecimiento y Producción – Local Committee for
supply and production), in which the government
distributes food parcels to the poor. Those who cannot
pay for the packages, receive them for free, of
course.</p>
<p><strong>What does such a parcel contain?</strong></p>
<p>I did open one when I was visiting one of the modern
and very clean “Urbanizaciones” (government housing
for the poor). There are 16 kg of food in it: sugar,
rice, cooking oil, flour, cornmeal, milk powder, etc.
A family gets such a parcel twice a month. Therefore,
there is no “famine” in Venezuela, despite media
reports and generalizations. There is, however, a
shortage in several sectors, and some products are
hard to get, but the population does not suffer from
hunger as for example in many countries of Africa and
Asia – or even in the favelas of São Paolo and other
urban areas in Brazil and other Latin American
countries. There are mainly problems in the timely
distribution of imported products – but this is
predominantly the responsibility of the private
sector, which often enough deliberately boycotts the
distribution, sometimes stocks products in large
warehouses and then takes them to the black market
instead of delivering them to supermarkets — just to
make a higher profit.</p>
<p><strong>What is special about the “Bolivarian
Revolution”?</strong></p>
<p>It is an alternative model to capitalism, to
unregulated free market economics. It is not
“Marxism”, and certainly not “Marxism-Leninism”. It is
an attempt to give the capitalist system a humane
face. Since 1999, when Hugo Chávez came to power, a
certain reorientation of the country took place, which
could set a precedent for Latin America and many
developing economies. There are major achievements,
which the mainstream media systematically ignores –
e.g. illiteracy was eliminated within shortest time
(as was the case in Castro’s Cuba). School education
is free, from kindergarten to university. There is a
system of free medical care, a system of support for
young mothers, a major effort at building affordable
housing and expanding the public transport system.</p>
<p><strong>Today, if you read the New York Times or
“inform” yourself about Venezuela on CNN or UN Watch
etc., you repeatedly come across the concept of a
“humanitarian crisis” …</strong></p>
<p>… I warn against this technical term, because a
“humanitarian crisis” can be easily exploited to
justify a so-called “humanitarian intervention” or to
aim at a “regime change”, under the pretext that the
government lets the population starve. Some states
pretend that the Venezuelan government can no longer
guarantee the rights of the people. Hence, a
humanitarian crisis emerged and now they want to
intervene militarily to “save” the Venezuelan people
from a failed socialist experiment.</p>
<p><strong>What is the situation on the ground?</strong></p>
<p>I stayed in Venezuela for 8 days of intensive
meetings back-to-back; I could move around freely
wherever I wanted. I did not see any street children
and I also did not see any person begging. I have not
seen a single beggar in Caracas although I walked and
drove across the entire city. I also walked by the
poorer quarters, where I did see queues of people
waiting for some subsidized or rationed products. The
situation has many facets, and I do not claim that
there is no hunger and no scarcity of medicine. I
simply say that the existing cases of children dying
of malnutrition or lack or medicine do not add up to a
“humanitarian crisis”. I did not see any violence,
although the press keeps telling us about it. As a UN
official I have been in many places where you “smell”
violence, where you sense tension in the air and feel
that you yourself may be in danger. That is not the
case in Venezuela. There are homicides – many of them
associated with drugs and international crime.
Honduras is much worse.</p>
<p><strong>People who beg are the order of the day in
our western industrial nations. No-one would think
of talking about a humanitarian crisis, for example
in Germany, because there are beggars in the
streets.</strong></p>
<p>In Venezuela, I did not see beggars. No doubt, there
is poverty, but the population is not depressed –
certainly not in the same degree as the people of East
Germany in the 70s, where people were dispirited and
demotivated and went about with pale faces, sad and
depressed. The population in the streets of Caracas is
Latino in the best sense of the term, they make the
best of things and do not let scarcity and boycotts
turn them into zombies. Just like in any other city;
everywhere there are cars, motorcycles and bicycles on
the road.</p>
<p><strong>Can the people supply themselves with food?</strong></p>
<p>There are enough fruits and locally-grown vegetables.
People eat bananas or mangoes in the streets. There is
a certain lack of the products that the domestic and
foreign monopolies determine.</p>
<p><strong>What is the situation like in the
supermarkets?</strong></p>
<p>I have seen several food stores and markets – and I
took photos of them. It is not true that the food
stores are empty. Of course, some have empty shelves –
I got such pictures from non-governmental
organizations (NGOS) – but there was always enough of
everything. Of course, there are some products that
are imported because Venezuela cannot manufacture them
itself. They are scarce commodity. But you can live
very well without these products. The fact that the
supply of hygienic items for women or diapers for the
babies are scarce is a direct result of the failure of
the private sector to import these goods and to
distribute them to the supermarkets. However, you can
get everything on the black market – but at exorbitant
prices.</p>
<p><strong>Is a specific shortage created there to stir
up the people’s dissatisfaction with the government?</strong></p>
<p>There are studies and statistical data from several
university professors who investigated this phenomenon
– especially why and how supply shortfalls are getting
worse, especially when elections or referendums are
imminent. They are supposed to affect people
negatively, so that they vote against the government.
This is called “voto castigo” (penalty vote) in
Spanish. If you read an article from the New York
Times, it will say that there are bottlenecks in
supply in Venezuela, for example also for medicines.
However, you will not read anywhere why this is so.
You will not read anywhere that the private sector
does have the foreign exchange to import the necessary
medicines. This is not said. It is not also said that
a huge smuggling has emerged for subsidized products –
subsidized Venezuelan rice or flour can be bought in
Bogotá.</p>
<p><strong>What are the reasons for these phenomena?</strong></p>
<p>There are a number of reasons, which I was able to
observe during my stay. I have to study them in more
detail. I was given an extended documentation from
various sources that I still have to digest. There are
also very good books about this topic. An economist in
Caracas, Professor Dr Pasqualina Curcio, carefully
explained in her book how the economic war against
Venezuela caused this situation of shortage, and that
was no accident – it was deliberate, absolutely
targeted. In the period around the elections –
approximately two or three months earlier – the goods
suddenly disappear. Especially hygiene items cannot be
purchased any longer. However, warehouses were
discovered, and that is also documented, that were
full of these products. I was also given a pictured
documentation on the matter.</p>
<p><strong>Do you mean that shortages are artificially
generated?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, the goods are often not delivered to the
supermarkets but traded on the black market at
exorbitant prices. There are, of course, institutional
problems and multiple inefficiencies in the
socialistic model, about which I made concrete
recommendations to the government. Yet another
problem, which I discussed with several ministers, is
the unnecessary price controls and artificial exchange
rates – this all results in corruption and abuse. The
government should instead give the most vulnerable
persons direct financial support, rather than making
use of a price control.</p>
<p><strong>Why that?</strong></p>
<p>The danger of price controls, as we know from the
Soviet Union, is that parallel markets emerge and with
them large-scale corruption. People are people, and if
they can buy subsidized goods, the temptation to
resell these subsidized goods at a higher price is too
big. You can make a killing with subsidized corn
flour, with subsidized rice, which you can then
smuggle into Colombia, Brazil, Aruba and sell it there
at great profit. Venezuela has a very long border with
Colombia and Brazil. The Caribbean Islands are easily
accessible, too.</p>
<p><strong>Who is responsible for this process?</strong></p>
<p>There is an internationally organized mafia that
operates the process, but apparently the governments
of the neighbouring countries do nothing to stop this
smuggling. If a store in Bogotá offers cheap rice from
Venezuela, we should assume that the traders know
where the rice comes from: It is either stolen or
smuggled. In any case it was brought into the country
illegally. The government does nothing – or too little
– against these supermarkets. Moreover, Colombia
allows the Venezuelan currency to be changed at wildly
fluctuating rates of exchange. This has devastating
effects on the economy and financial situation in
Venezuela.</p>
<p><strong>What about agricultural production in the
country?</strong></p>
<p>Diversified agricultural production is now being
systematically promoted, but this is a process that
takes time and requires importing seeds and other
goods. Venezuela no longer wants to be exclusively
dependent on oil exports and wants to produce its own
food. However, the procurement of seeds is in the
hands of foreign monopolists, and the government has
difficulties in obtaining seeds at decent prices.</p>
<p><strong>To what extent do sanctions have an impact on
the supply situation?</strong></p>
<p>Direct and indirect sanctions have hit the economic
situation in Venezuela seriously. The economic,
financial and trade war against Venezuela reminds of
the US measures against the democratically elected
government of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1970-73 and
against the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega in
Nicaragua in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Deliveries from abroad are traded in dollars. However
authorized persons must sign for the payment in
dollars. Many of the persons who have this right to
sign are on the sanctions list. This means that no
trading partner dares to accept their signature. Thus,
the company cannot earn any money because no payment
can be made, and the goods do not come to Venezuela.
The suppliers are afraid that they will be penalized
by US authorities – with fines of tens of thousands of
dollars if they fail to comply with the unilateral
sanctions regime of the United States.</p>
<p><strong>For which goods or sectors do the sanctions
apply?</strong></p>
<p>That is the next problem. Nobody really knows how far
they reach. They are based on so-called catch-all
clauses, which can be interpreted one way or the
other. But who wants to have to pay a fine? So many
international companies are prudent and do not take
unnecessary risks. For Venezuela this is devastating.</p>
<p><strong>What would help the country?</strong></p>
<p>The sanctions must be terminated. The economic war
has to end, that would be the greatest help for the
country. However, what we can observe in Venezuela is
the result of a targeted economic war. There are many
countries participating, even from Europe. The
misinformation about Venezuela has been successful –
even with people who should be better informed. You
have to be on the spot to see that the situation is
not like you read in The New York Times. If you look
at the mainstream media, you get the impression that
the country is close to collapse. In fact, the country
is rich and with a bit of cooperation and solidarity
it could sell its oil, its gold, its bauxite well.
Venezuela must now trade a lot with China and India
because of the very limited trade with the US and
Europe.</p>
<p><strong>Is the oil trade also subject to the
sanctions?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, partly. The sanctions are very complex. It is
not the case that a sale cannot be done at all, but it
is connected with so many obstacles, and there are so
many restrictions and delays that many people say, “We
would rather not do business with Venezuela, there is
too much imponderability.”</p>
<p><strong>During your stay you could certainly talk to
the population. What impression have you gained
here?</strong></p>
<p>Many are somewhat resigned because they suffer from
an economic war. But when it comes to elections,
Maduro wins. The majority of the population does not
make the government responsible for all that, but they
accuse the United States, Europe, Colombia, etc. When
the Constituent Assembly was elected, there had been
very violent demonstrations prior to the election for
four months. In the foreign media we read about those
“peaceful demonstrations.” In fact, these were orgies
of violence with Molotov cocktails and explosives. It
was almost terrorism that hit many normal,
non-political people when, for example, a supplier
wanted to get from A to B, but the “guarimbas”
(violent demonstrations with barricades) blocked his
path. Several ordinary people were killed, who only
wanted to go about their business. In addition,
demonstrators attacked hospitals, nursery schools,
burned ambulances and buses in order to intimidate the
people. Is this not just classic terrorism?</p>
<p><strong>Did the demonstrations succeed with these
methods?</strong></p>
<p>No, 8.5 millions of people went to the polls for the
Constituent Assembly, in spite of the guarimbas and in
spite of the violence. In the local elections of 15
December more than 9 million went to the polls. The
opposition does not succeed in changing the people’s
mind, but the polarization of the country continues to
be a problem, because Chavistas are very strongly
pro-government, and the MUD is very strongly against
the government. There is very little sense that “la
patria es de todos” (the fatherland belongs to all).
According to media reports in the US and Europe, the
only solution is regime change, to chase the
government from office. We must however not forget
that this government was democratically elected in
1999, in 2002 it survived a coup because the people
and the army opposed the coup and prevented the
planned physical elimination of Chávez. In 2004 a
recall referendum was held, which Chávez won easily —
70% of the population did not want to remove him from
office. After his death in 2013, Maduro was elected
President, in spite of a violent campaign, accompanied
by terror and sabotage on the part of the opposition.</p>
<p><strong>How did the government deal with all these
organized attacks?</strong></p>
<p>The government relied on the 1999 Constitution.
However, a number of major mistakes including
excessive force by the police, did occur. If a
government is under such pressure, then it must act
quickly. If one acts fast, one makes mistakes, often
goes too far. This includes, for example, introducing
economic measures that can be counter-productive,
including subsidies and price controls.</p>
<p><strong>What kind of agenda does the opposition
follow?</strong></p>
<p>They wish to cancel the Chávez and Maduro years and
return to a purely capitalistic model. But there are
at least 8 million Chávistas, and they will not
disappear. These voters are convinced of the
government’s program. These people will not allow the
social achievements to be swept away. If the economy
does not collapse as a result of sabotage, smuggling
and sanctions, the government is likely to be
reelected in 2018. The administration and the army are
on the side of the government. Certainly, the plan in
Washington is to launch a military attack on Venezuela
by making use of disinformation about the allegedly
miserable situation in the country with hunger, infant
mortality and an economically desolate conditions, and
then to chase the government out of office. We know
this proceeding from other countries, so for example
from September 1973 when the government of Salvador
Allende was overthrown by a coup and Allende died.</p>
<p><strong>How do you assess your stay?</strong></p>
<p>I got a very different impression from the one I
pictured to myself before I visited the country. In
our media there is scarce interest in truly
investigative journalism, in discovering what the root
causes of Venezuela’s problems are. We get a
caricature of the situation, and this caricature
becomes dogma. Weeks before my journey, my
independence, my professionalism, my honour were
questioned. UN Watch published an article and called
my visit a “fake investigation”, even before I had set
foot on Venezuelan soil. Some NGOs have claimed that I
was not the right Special Rapporteur for these
questions. That was before I had announced anything at
all about my journey. On my personal blog I showed
pictures of Caracas, its churches, monuments, and a
picture of a supermarket that was full of goods. After
that there were particularly offensive attacks against
me. UN-Watch found the picture and reacted to it. I
had published the picture without any comment. I was
attacked as a chavist, a castrist, a communist, etc.
All I wanted to show is that the situation is not as
they want us to believe. I had seen so many pictures
of empty shelves that I thought it was legitimate to
show a different photo in my private blog (which also
reflected my observation in other supermarkets).</p>
<p><strong>What did you suggest to the Venezuelan
government?</strong></p>
<p>I submitted to the foreign minister six pages of
preliminary recommendations, among others
institutional improvements, the elimination of price
controls, the fight against smuggling and corruption,
but always within the rule of law. They ought to
respect the UN covenants on civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights. They are already
seeking dialogue with the opposition and showing
commendable flexibility and patience. They should
either release individuals who have been imprisoned
for political reasons, or take them to court with a
fair trial. And for the better management of the
country they need technocrats, not only ideologists!
Above all, the government must prove that it takes
human rights seriously. Corruption must be fought at
all levels, even with the help of the UN Office on
Drugs and Crime in Vienna. In doing so, UN
organizations, such as the World Health Organization,
the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), the
International Labor Organization (ILO), etc. could
help to ensure that the necessary improvements are
translated into action.</p>
<p><strong>What do you think of the conversations you
had in the Dominican Republic?</strong></p>
<p>Every opportunity of dialogue with the opposition
must be taken. The previous meetings in Santo Domingo
in November, December 2017 and January 2018 have
already been fruitful. Further meetings are planned.
It is in the interest of all who care for human rights
and who care for the Venezuelan people to support
these negotiations. Unfortunately, a “human rights
industry” has emerged that has instrumentalizes human
rights as weapons of mass destruction against
governments. This “industry” is not interested in
solving the “humanitarian crisis”, they want to use
the hyperbolic “crisis” as a pretext for military
intervention and regime change. This “industry” does
not want independent experts who travel to Venezuela
to find out what the real situation is. They only want
“experts” who go to Venezuela (or elsewhere) simply to
grandstand and condemn governments. If anyone means it
with humanitarian aid, they should offer their
cooperation to the government and send food and
medicines without strings attached. If they are
interested in the Venezuelan people, they will make
sure that sanctions and boycotts are lifted, so that
the Venezuelan government can function normally,
without discrimination, in the international
community, so that Venezuela can import and export
free of sabotage and political ostracism.</p>
<p><em>The <strong>Alliance for Global Justice</strong>,
and anti-imperialist solidarity group based in the
US, will be holding a live <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/426125947803686/">webinar</a> with
Alfred de Zayas this Sunday, January 28. Follow
this <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/426125947803686/">link</a> for
information on how to register.</em></p>
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