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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/15/a-criminal-affair-united-states-imposes-war-on-the-venezuelan-people/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/15/a-criminal-affair-united-states-imposes-war-on-the-venezuelan-people/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">A Criminal Affair: United States
Imposes War on the Venezuelan People</h1>
<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr" style="text-align:
left;"><span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/gaguwe/"
rel="nofollow">W. T. Whitney</a></span> - May 15, 2019<br>
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<p>To replace Venezuela’s government with one to its
liking, the United States uses special war-making tools.
The plan is to make Venezuelans suffer enough so that,
desperate, they will accept whatever government is
presented. Troops and weapons aren’t required. That
approached worked in Chile in 1973, but so far in Cuba
it hasn’t – after almost 60 years.</p>
<p>The process has advanced. Citing a report from
Venezuela’s National Survey on Living Conditions,
analysts Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs <u><a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf">noted
recently</a> </u>that 40,000 more Venezuelans died
in 2018 than in 2017. The death rate jumped by 31
percent.</p>
<p>The purpose here is to establish that the U.S.
government actually intends to make Venezuelans suffer.
U.S. deeds and officials’ words are revealing. Those
responsible need to be called to account.</p>
<p><u><a
href="https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-interview-us-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-/4621152.html">Interviewed</a>
</u>on October 19, 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
conceded that U.S. sanctions against Venezuela
“sometimes have an adverse impact on the people of
Venezuela.” But on March 11, 2019 he was celebrating: “<u><a
href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2019/03/290269.htm">The
circle is</a> </u>tightening, the humanitarian
crisis is increasing by the hour. I talked with our
senior person on the ground there in Venezuela last
night … You can see the increasing pain and suffering
that the Venezuelan people are suffering from.”</p>
<p>Answering a reporter’s question in early 2018 about
U.S. policies on Venezuela, a U.S. Embassy official in
Mexico City <u><a
href="https://mx.usembassy.gov/es/sesion-informativa-sobre-viaje-del-secretario-tillerson-latinoamerica/">commented
that</a>, </u>“The economic sanctions we’ve imposed
on the Venezuelan government have caused it to stop
making payments as much on its sovereign debt as on
PDVSA, its oil company … we are seeing a total economic
collapse … Therefore, our policy is working.”</p>
<p>Interviewed later that year, former U.S. ambassador to
Venezuela William Brownfield declared that, “<u><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBoe3AvSvc">If
we are going to</a> </u>sanction PDVSA, it will
have an impact on the entire people … [A]t this moment
perhaps the best resolution would be to accelerate the
collapse, even if it produces a period of suffering of
months or perhaps years”.</p>
<p>Beginning in 2014, the U.S. government instituted
economic sanctions. Venezuela was vulnerable. Oil prices
had plummeted and inflation had skyrocketed.
Contributing to inflation were reduced oil prices,
hoarding of merchandise by commercial interests, and
currency manipulation, which, according <u><a
href="https://chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/pasqualina-curcio-the-visible-hand-of-the-market-an-invitation-to-a-debate-of-ideas/">to
Venezuelan economist Pasqualina Curcio</a></u>, “is
one of the main weapons of war that imperialism has
used.”</p>
<p>From 2014 on, Venezuela’s economy contracted by more <a
href="http://www.sinpermiso.info/textos/cuba-desafio-formidable">than 50
percent</a>. Oil production, <u><a
href="https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Congressional-Hearing-This-Is-How-Far-Venezuelan-Oil-Production-Could-Fall.html">two
million</a> </u>barrels per day in 2017, had fallen
to <u><a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf">431,000
bpd</a> </u>by March, 2019. Oil exports provide the
government with 95 percent of its income, which pays for
social support.Venezuela imports two thirds of the food
consumed there. Difficulties in paying for imported food
promote suffering.</p>
<p>Economic sanctions became a weapon of war. Countries
now aligned against Venezuela once supplied <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2019/05/05/muy-importante-documento-base-sobre-el-bloqueo-economico-contra-venezuela/">46
percent</a> </u>of the medicines needed there, with
the United States providing 34 percent. Those countries
were the source of 45 percent of food imported by
Venezuela; the United States accounted for 33 percent.</p>
<p>Trouble mounted for Venezuelans after the U.S. Congress
passed Public Law 113-278 in December, 2014. It
authorized the president to use executive action to
“impose … sanctions … with respect to any foreign person
… acting on behalf of [Venezuela’s] Government.” The
term “foreign person” applies to banks and financial
institutions abroad.</p>
<p>Sanctions were announced in March, 2015 (by President
Obama) and in April 2017; March, May, November of 2018;
and January, March, and April of 2019.Theytarget income
generated from Venezuela’s oil exports, assets abroad;
access to imported goods and credit; and ability to
secure, reschedule, or repay loans. Foreign banks are
crucial to U.S. purposes. U.S. dollars are the currency
of choice in international trade, and Venezuela must use
dollars. To avoid penalties, the banks enforce U.S.
mandates on transactions involving dollars.</p>
<p>Beginning in 2016, banks refused to handle Venezuelan
transactions. They included Commerzbank of Germany,
Credit Suisse, the Panamanian and Shandong branches of
the Bank of China, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Citibank,
Novo Banco in Portugal, and Russian banks. Sanctions in
January 2019 barred U.S. financial institutions from
facilitating foreign sales of Venezuelan oil and gold.</p>
<p>Comprehensive reports from <u><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/impact-of-the-economic-war-against-the-people-of-venezuela">economist
Pasqualina</a> </u>Curcio and <a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2019/05/05/muy-importante-documento-base-sobre-el-bloqueo-economico-contra-venezuela/">by
others </a>detail multiple instances of foreign banks
refusing to process individual Venezuelan purchase
orders. Among them are: 300,000 vials of insulin, food
costing $29.7 million destined for the government’s
food-support program, another order of, food, medicines
and other supplies costing $39 million, and a $9 million
intended purchase of dialysis equipment for 15,000
patients. <em> </em></p>
<p>Sanctions also blocked delivery of blood products for
hemophilia patients, immunoglobulin for 200 children
with Kawasaki disease, equipment for surgical repair of
congenital heart malformations, and hospital drugs and
anesthetic supplies obtainable in Turkey. JP Morgan held
up $28.1 million to have been used for leasing food
transport ships.</p>
<p>U.S. sanctions also led to the immobilizing – actually
stealing – of Venezuelan resources through which
citizens might have been protected from sickness and
food shortage. Citibank, the Bank of London, Novo Banco,
Japan’s Sumitomo bank, North Street Capital (a hedge
fund firm), and the Bank of England confiscated
Venezuelan assets. The latter bank holds onto Venezuelan
gold worth $1.36 billion.</p>
<p>Targeting the state-owned PDVSA oil company, U. S.
sanctions in January, 2019 enabled the confiscation of <u><a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2019/05/05/muy-importante-documento-base-sobre-el-bloqueo-economico-contra-venezuela">$7
billion</a> </u>in assets belonging to PDVSA’s U.S.
affiliate CITGO. The fiction was presented of their
transfer to the nonexistent government of U.S. puppet
Juan Guaidó. Through sanctions, Venezuela’s government
lost access to CITGO income and dividends valued at <a
href="http://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2019/05/05/muy-importante-documento-base-sobre-el-bloqueo-economico-contra-venezuela/">$11
billion</a>, also to imported diluents, other
additives, and repair materials – all essential for
producing oil.</p>
<p>Weisbrot and Sachs report that as late as 2018 the
United States purchased 35.6 percent of Venezuela’s oil
exports. Sanctions now block imports of PDVSA oil by
U.S. refineries and those of other countries. U.S.
sanctions interfere with payments from third countries
on imported Venezuelan oil.</p>
<p>Pasqualina Curcio reports that since 2013 U.S.
“coercive measures” have deprived Venezuela of $114.3
billion. Of this, $92.9 billion are losses due to
inflation and reduced oil production. The remaining loss
of $21.5 billion stems from “unilateral coercive
measures, financial blockades, commercial embargoes, and
the theft of CITGO assets and other resources.”</p>
<p>Now Venezuela’s government can’t pay for food,
medicines, and hospital and school supplies. It can’t
rehabilitate water and electricity systems. According to
Weisbrot and Sacks, food imports in 2018 amounted to “<u><a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf">just
$2.46 billion</a></u>,” down from “$11.2 billion in
2013.” The likelihood of further decline in 2019 implies
that “people with untreated HIV, diabetes, kidney
failure, severe hypertension, certain types of cancer –
300,000 in all – are at extreme risk of death.” Recent
sanctions represent “a death sentence for tens of
thousands of Venezuelans.”</p>
<p>They point out that in 2019, “Imports of goods are
projected to fall by 39.4 percent, from $10 billion to
$6.1 billion.” Oil income will be 67 percent lower than
in 2018. What’s happening is“collective punishment of
the civilian population.”</p>
<p>Rapporteur and “independent expert” Alfred de Zayas in
September, 2018 submitted a <u><a
href="https://mronline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/un-report-on-venezuela-and-ecuador-alfred-de-zayas.pdf">comprehensive
report</a> </u>on Venezuela to the United Nations
Council on Human Rights. It highlights U.S. violations
of international law. At issue are “principles of
non-intervention and non-interference in the internal
affairs of sovereign states.” He mentions U.S. disregard
for the United Nations Charter, the General Assembly’s
Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States adopted
in 1974, the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Program of
Action, and various General Assembly resolutions.</p>
<p>But more to the point: the U.S. government is abusing
innocent Venezuelan people, and many die. U.S.
officials, it seems here, engage in crimes against
humanity. They disregard precepts of moral law.</p>
<p>To be violating prevailing ethical and legal norms
apparently doesn’t matter to the U.S. government. But in
an alternative world of justice, they do matter. A first
step in making things right would be to bring into
public view the purposes of U.S. intervention in
Venezuela and methods being used. Ideally, the notion
would get around that for current U.S. leaders,
Venezuela’s oil and U.S. regional domination mean more
than does human survival. Calling them to account would
come next – in theory.</p>
<p>What’s possible is to approach some of those who have
gotten a pass on complicity with crime. They would be
the congresspersons who voted for Public Law 113–278
and/or aren’t dealing with its grim consequences.
Living in all states, they are accessible.</p>
<p>When those activists now fending off sham diplomats at
Venezuela’s Embassy in Washington eventually leave, they
and others, logically, would get into a traveling mode.
Congresspersons would be confronted in their states with
demands to undo the Law.</p>
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<p> <em><strong>W.T. Whitney Jr.</strong> is a retired
pediatrician and political journalist living in Maine.</em>
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