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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Sanctions-Killed-Over-40000-Venezuelans-Since-2017-20190425-0015.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Sanctions-Killed-Over-40000-Venezuelans-Since-2017-20190425-0015.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">US Sanctions Killed Over 40,000
Venezuelans Since 2017</h1>
April 25, 2019</div>
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<p>The <a href="http://cepr.net/" target="_blank">Center
for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)</a> released
Thursday a study revealing that President Donald Trump’s
actions against Venezuela are mostly affecting
not President Nicolas Maduro’s administration but the
civilian population, as more than 40,000 deaths have
been brought about by U.S. economic sanctions.</p>
<p>“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving
medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential
imports,” said Mark Weisbrot, the CEPR Co-Director and
co-author of the report. “This is illegal
under international laws and treaties that the U.S. has
signed. Congress should move to stop it.”</p>
<p>The <a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf"
target="_blank">“Economic Sanctions as Collective
Punishment: The Case of Venezuela”</a> study was also
written by Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned economist who
teaches at Columbia University and was a director of
the Harvard Institute for International Development at
the Kennedy School of Government.</p>
<p>Besides pointing out that the U.S. actions have been
rapidly worsening the humanitarian crisis, the CEPR
study notes that a new set of financial and trade
sanctions have been deployed to devastate the Venezuelan
economy since the U.S. recognized Juan Guaido’s parallel
government in January 2019.</p>
<p>“Venezuela’s economic crisis is routinely blamed all on
Venezuela but it is much more than that. U.S. sanctions
are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and
thereby lead to regime change," the Columbia professor
said and explained that "it’s a fruitless, heartless,
illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the
Venezuelan people,” the authors write. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, by prohibiting international transactions
with the Bolivarian government, the United States has
"efficiently" affected Venezuela's oil production, which
can be clearly seen when a correlation is drawn between
oil production levels and the dates when the sanctions
went into effect.</p>
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<figure> <img alt="" data-height="470"
data-size="w:840,h:658" data-width="600"
src="https://www.telesurenglish.net/export/sites/telesur/img/2019/04/25/oil_production_felll_in_march.png_30930112.png"
title=""> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure>
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<p>The loss of oil-based incomes has prevented the
Venezuelan government from not only improving the
country's balance of payments but also buying food and
medicines at international markets.</p>
<p>“Since the January 2019 sanctions, oil production has
fallen by 431,000 barrels per day or 36.4 percent. This
will greatly accelerate the humanitarian crisis, but the
projected 67 percent decline in oil production for the
year, if the sanctions continue, would cause vastly more
loss of human life,” the report warned. </p>
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<figure> <img alt="" data-height="417"
data-size="w:540,h:417" data-width="540"
src="https://www.telesurenglish.net/export/sites/telesur/img/2019/04/25/oil_production_from_2013_2.png_613493512.png"
title=""> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure>
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<p>The CEPR report also reveals that Venezuela's economic
contraction is clearly not a "natural fact" but rather a
consequence of the current U.S. foreign policy, which
represents a "very serious harm to human life and
health."</p>
<p>“The sanctions reduced the public’s caloric intake,
increased disease and mortality (for both adults and
infants), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled
the country as a result of the worsening economic
depression and hyperinflation. They exacerbated
Venezuela’s economic crisis and made it nearly
impossible to stabilize the economy, contributing
further to excess deaths. All of these impacts
disproportionately harmed the poorest and most
vulnerable Venezuelans,” the Weisbrot & Sachs study
denounces.</p>
<p>CEPR estimated more than 40,000 deaths prompted by U.S.
actions since August 2017. That figure is based on an
estimated 80,000 people with HIV who have not had
antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who
need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million
with diabetes and hypertension, many of whom cannot
obtain insulin or cardiovascular medicine.</p>
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