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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Timeline-of-Half-a-Decade-of-US-Economic-War-Against-Venezuela-20190521-0011.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Timeline-of-Half-a-Decade-of-US-Economic-War-Against-Venezuela-20190521-0011.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Timeline of Half a Decade of US
Economic War Against Venezuela</h1>
May 22, 2019</div>
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<p>As of January 23, 2019, the aggressiveness of the U.S.
blockade against Venezuela increased
remarkably following the unconstitutional actions taken
by U.S.-backed opposition congressman Juan Guaido, who
self-declared as "president in charge" in a new attempt
to destabilize the government of Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro.</p>
<p>However, the latest sanctions by Washington against
Venezuela come as a culmination of almost half a decade
of U.S. aggression by multiple successive
administrations seeking to put an end to decades of
leftist rule in the oil-rich South American country. </p>
<p>While the recent U.S. sanctions are blocking the
Venezuelan people from using over US$11 billion from
Citgo Petroleum, a corporation owned by Petroleos de
Venezuela (PDVSA), total damages are estimated at US$130
billion for the period between 2015 to 2018, as the
Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia, Carlos Rafael Faria
Tortosa, said Tuesday.</p>
<p>While the Venezuelan government, human rights
organizations and experts, as well as economists, warn
that such sanctions are directly affecting the
Venezuelan people, U.S. officials seem to have little
care to their suffering.</p>
<p>In October 2018, during an exclusive interview with VOA
media, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela William
Brownfield said the "best solution" would be to
"accelerate" the collapse of the Bolivarian Revolution
even if that implied a greater burden of human
suffering.</p>
<p>teleSUR put together a timeline of economic
sanctions and hurdles placed on the Venezuelan
government by both the United States government and the
U.S. banking system, revealling a strategic escalation
of aggression by the U.S. government over the past few
years. </p>
<h4>December 2014</h4>
<p>The U.S. Congress approves Law 113-278: "Public Law for
the Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society in
Venezuela", which establishes the road map for
unilateral coercive measures by the U.S. and the
countries that operate within its sphere of influence.</p>
<p>This law expressly established "sanctions" against the
Central Bank of Venezuela and Petróleos de Venezuela SA
(PDVSA), the main state company that has a monopoly on
the exploitation of all the Nation's hydrocarbons and
generates more than 90 percent of the revenues in the
country.</p>
<p>With this legal instrument, the United States opened
the doors for unilateral measures to block and freeze
assets, funds, property and Venezuelan properties;
suspension of entry, revocation of the visa or other
documentation to officials and officials who hold public
office, military officers and diplomatic
representatives.</p>
<p>All these actions were aimed at creating the conditions
of an economic, financial and commercial embargo on
Venezuela, as well as to hinder the participation of
state representatives in international relations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>RELATED:<br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-has-the-Means-to-Defeat-the-US-Blockade-20190521-0006.html"
target="_blank">Venezuela has the Means to
Defeat the US Blockade</a></strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<h4>March 2015</h4>
<p>U.S. President Barack Obama signs a decree which
designates Venezuela as an "unusual and extraordinary
threat to the U.S. National Security." As a result of
this decision, Citibank refused to receive Venezuelan
funds seeking to purchase 300,000 insulin doses required
for the treatment of Venezuelan diabetic patients.</p>
<h4>May 2016</h4>
<p>Due to pressures from the U.S. Treasury Department, the
German bank Commerzbank unilaterally closed the accounts
of Venezuelan public institution and companies.</p>
<h4><strong>July 2016</strong></h4>
<p>Citibank unilaterally ceased the service of
correspondent accounts in foreign currency of Venezuelan
institutions in the US, including those of the
Venezuela's Central Bank (BCV).</p>
<p>Risk rating agencies assigned Venezuela the world's
highest financial risk (2,640 points), well above
countries at war, despite having fulfilled its external
debt commitments. Venezuela had paid US$63.4 billion in
debt service since 2013; however, the financial risk
increased 202 percent during the same period, rising
from an average of 768 in 2012 to 2,323 in 2016.</p>
<h4>August 2016</h4>
<p>Portugal's Novo Banco reported the impossibility of
conducting dollar-denominated operations with Venezuelan
banks, due to pressures exerted by its correspondent
banks.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>RELATED:</strong></em></p>
<p><a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chavistas-March-in-Caracas-to-Mark-Nicolas-Maduros-Re-election-20190520-0009.html"
target="_blank"><em><strong>Chavistas March in
Caracas to Mark Nicolas Maduro’s Re-election</strong></em></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h4>September 2016</h4>
<p>In order to partially refinance its financial
obligations and reschedule its debt amortizations, the
Venezuelan government makes an offer to exchange US$ 7.1
billion in PDVSA bonds. The U.S.-based risk rating
agencies threatened investors with declaring default if
they agree to the Venezuelan proposal.</p>
<h4>November 2016</h4>
<p>J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. issued a false default
alert about an alleged US$404 million PDVSA debt
default.</p>
<h4>December 2016</h4>
<p>Venezuela did not receive a shipment of new banknotes
from the Crane Currency company, which is a U.S.
Treasury Department's supplier and was contracted by the
Venezuelan state to print currency cone pieces.</p>
<h4>July 2017</h4>
<p>The Delaware Trust company, an agent of payments of
PDVSA bonds, announced that its U.S. correspondent, the
PNC Financial Services Group, refused to receive funds
from the Venezuelan oil company. </p>
<h4>August 2017</h4>
<p>The U.S. Executive Order 13808 prohibited all
transactions aimed at financing Venezuela, banned direct
or indirect purchases of Venezuelan government
securities, which included bonds, loans, credit
extensions, loan guarantees, credit letters, drafts,
bankers acceptance, invoices or discount notes, and
commercial papers.</p>
<p>With this order, the U.S. blockade against the
Bolivarian government became official and granted legal
status to the financial boycott, making private banks an
openly active partner of the U.S. isolation policy.</p>
<p>The Swiss multinational investment bank Credit Suisse
prohibited its clients from carrying out financial
transactions with Venezuela.</p>
<p>The Bank of China at Panama informed that it would not
carry out any operation in favor of Venezuela due to
both instructions from the U.S. Treasury Department and
pressures coming from the Panamanian government.</p>
<p>Similarly, Russian banks refused to make transactions
towards Venezuelan banks due to restrictions imposed by
correspondent banks based in the U.S. and Europe.</p>
<p>Claiming administrative reasons, the BDC Shandong's
correspondent paralyzed a US$200 million transaction
towards Venezuela even though the People's Republic of
China had already rotated the corresponding funds.</p>
<h4>October 2017</h4>
<p>Venezuela could not deposit money in the Swiss
UBS Investment Bank to pay for vaccines and medicines
purchased through the Pan American Health Organization
(PHO). This caused a delay of four months in the
acquisition of vaccines and altered the Venezuelan
vaccination schedules.</p>
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<blockquote data-lang="en">
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<p>Reverend Jackson understands that starving
Venezuela into submission with a blockade is
inmmoral and inhumane. Trump’s international
policy is dangerous and does not make rational
sense.</p>
<p> Stop Trump’s war! <a
href="https://t.co/kzOFsz8OhD">pic.twitter.com/kzOFsz8OhD</a></p>
</div>
— Samuel Moncada (@SMoncada_VEN) <a
href="https://twitter.com/SMoncada_VEN/status/1128871168948211712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May
16, 2019</a> </blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<h4>November 2017</h4>
<p>The Deutsche Ban, the main correspondent of the Central
Bank of Venezuela (BCV) main correspondent, definitively
closed all Venezuelan accounts.</p>
<p>International banks refused 23 Venezuelan operations,
worth US$39 million, aimed at purchasing food, basic
supplies and medicines.</p>
<p>The Standard and Poor's rating agency declared
Venezuela to be in "selective default," a condition
which was fabricated by not registering a payment
process on time.</p>
<p>Wilmington Trust, a company managing bonds, accused the
Venezuelan company Corpoelec of not paying US$27 million
in debt interests. This happened in a moment when
Venezuela's means of payment were going through a full
blockade within the U.S. financial system.</p>
<h4>December 2017</h4>
<p>U.S. banks arbitrarily blocked 19 bank accounts through
which Venezuela had been making payments to land
transport cabotage services. This caused fuel shortages
in several states and also hindered transactions related
to 471,000 vehicle tires which had already been paid.</p>
<p>European banks delayed a US$29.7 million transaction
through which the Venezuelan Committees for Local Supply
and Production (CLAP)'s food program was paying its
suppliers.</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan Chase delayed accepting resources for
US$28.1 million which were destined to pay services from
vessels transporting food supplies to Venezuela.</p>
<h4>January 2018.</h4>
<p>About US$ 1.2 billion in Venezuelan sovereign bonds and
PDVSA bonds could not be repaid to their creditors due
to the Trump administration's sanctions.</p>
<h4>February 2018</h4>
<p>The U.S. Treasury Department extended financial
penalties established in the August 2017 Executive Order
13808. The renegotiation or restructuring of the
Venezuelan debt, issued by the government and its public
enterprises before August 25, 2017, was impeded.</p>
<h4>March 2018</h4>
<p>President Trump renewed executive orders 13692 and
13808 for an additional year. He also prohibited debt
restructuring in favor of Citgo Petroleum and prevented
the repatriation of this company's dividends.</p>
<p>The U.S. issued executive order 13827 which prohibits
any citizen or institution from making financial
transactions with 'Petro', a Venezuela's state-owned
cryptocurrency.</p>
<h4>April 2018</h4>
<p>During the Summit of the Americas, Peru's Foreign
Minister announced that Lima Group has decided to create
a follow-up group to study further political and
economic measures against Venezuela.</p>
<p>In the same event, Colombia and the U.S. agreed to
accelerate mechanisms to chase Venezuela's financial
transactions and hinder basic products supply lines.</p>
<h4>May 2018</h4>
<p>In retaliation for the victory of Nicolas Maduro in the
presidential elections on May 20, 2018, to assume a
2019-2025 term, in which the Bolivarian leader received
67 percent of 9 million votes, the U.S. issued executive
order 13835 which prohibits purchasing debt and accounts
payable by Venezuelan state-owned companies. In
addition, the Trump administration sanctioned 20
Venezuelan companies for alleged ties to drug
trafficking.</p>
<p>Thus the U.S. government banned all kinds of operations
related to the sale, transfer, assignment, or granting
as guarantee performed by any U.S.-based company in
which the Venezuelan government had a share of 50
percent of more.</p>
<p>Due to this, over 15,000 hemodialysis patients received
no supplies, for US$9 million aimed at purchasing
dialysis supplies were blocked. The Colombian government
blocked a 400,000 kilos supplies shipment for the
Venezuelan food subsidy program.</p>
<h4>August 2018</h4>
<p>The Brazilian government did not pay US$40 million to
the Venezuela's Electricity Corporation for its energy
supply to the Roraima state. Brazil's Foreign Minister,
Aloysio Nunes, had declared that his country's debt
could not be canceled due to "the economic and financial
blockade imposed by the U.S. and the European Union."</p>
<h4>November 2018</h4>
<p>Through a new coercive measure, the Trump
Administration prohibited U.S. citizens from trading
gold exported from Venezuela.</p>
<h4>January 2019</h4>
<p>The Trump Administration approved new sanctions against
PDVSA, which included freezing US$7 billion in assets
owned by its U.S. subsidiary company, CITGO. This
measure will bring about US$11 billion estimated
export-related losses in the coming years.</p>
<p>On Jan. 28, the State Department and the Department of
the Treasury ceded control of CITGO and Venezuelan bank
accounts in its territory to Guaido's representatives.</p>
<p>In Europe, as a result of an extraterritorial and
illegal application of coercive measures, the Bank of
England announced the confiscation of Venezuela's gold
reserves valued at US$ 1.4 billion.</p>
<h4>March 2019</h4>
<p>As a consequence of executive order 13850, the
production and trading operations of the Venezuelan
Guyana Mining Corporation (Minerven) were affected.</p>
<p>This executive order also compromised the operations of
the Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank
(Bandes) and the institutions over which it retains the
50 percent ownership, namely, Bandes Uruguay, People's
Bicentenary Bank, Universla Bank, Bank of Venezuela and
Prodem Bank.</p>
<h4>April 2019</h4>
<p>The operations of more than 30 PDVSA oil tankers were
blocked.</p>
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