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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14615">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14615</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Washington Escalates Venezuela
Sanctions into Full-Fledged Embargo</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Lucas Koerner and Ricardo
Vaz - August 6, 2019<br>
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<p>Caracas, August 6, 2019 (<a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
– The Trump administration has imposed a
sweeping economic embargo against Venezuela
in its efforts to oust the Maduro
government.</p>
<p>An <a
href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/20190805_venezuela_eo.pdf">executive
order</a> signed by Trump on Monday
declares all Venezuelan state assets in the
US “blocked,” prohibiting them from being
“transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or
otherwise dealt in” unless specific
exemptions are issued by the Treasury
Department. All transactions with Venezuelan
state entities are likewise forbidden.</p>
<p>Crucially, the executive order likewise
authorizes the Treasury Department to issue
secondary sanctions against non-US third
parties deemed to have “materially assisted,
sponsored, or provided financial, material,
or technological support for, or goods or
services” to the Venezuelan government.</p>
<p>While previous executive orders had already
laid the legal basis for secondary sanctions
against foreign actors dealing with
Venezuela’s state oil, mining, and banking
sectors, the present White House decree
expands the blacklist to encompass all
business with the Venezuelan state.</p>
<p>“We are sending a signal to third parties
that want to do business with the Maduro
regime: Proceed with extreme caution,”
stated US National Security Advisor John
Bolton, adding that those who flout
sanctions “risk [their] business interests
with the United States.”</p>
<p>Bolton made the remarks during a gathering
of fifty-six countries that recognize
opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s
“interim president” in Lima, Peru on
Tuesday. President Nicolas Maduro continues
to be recognized by Russia, China, the
United Nations, and the rest of the
international community.</p>
<p>At the conference, Bolton threatened Moscow
and Beijing not to “double-down” in support
of the Maduro administration, which he
described as “now join[ing] that exclusive
club of rogue states.”</p>
<p>The senior Trump official likened the
embargo to that imposed on the elected
Sandinista government as well as the asset
freezes targeting the Noriega regime in the
1980s, while the <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-expands-sanctions-against-venezuela-into-an-embargo-11565053782">Wall
Street Journal</a> compared the stringent
measures to the draconian US sanctions
regimes against Cuba, Iran, Syria or North
Korea.</p>
<p>The executive order includes an exemption
permitting transactions involving “articles
such as food, clothing, and medicine
intended to be used to relieve human
suffering.”</p>
<p>However, analysts such as Torino Capital
Chief Economist <a
href="https://twitter.com/frrodriguezc/status/1158573085546680320">Francisco
Rodriguez</a> have warned that
humanitarian exemptions have “tended to be
ineffective when applied to other countries
facing similar regimes.”</p>
<p>Rodriguez had already projected Venezuela’s
economy to contract by 37 percent in 2019
largely as a result of previous sanctions,
which economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey
Sachs have described as a form of “<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446">collective
punishment</a>” in a recent study.</p>
<p>Despite the latest measures containing no
provisions directly targeting Venezuela’s
private sector as a whole, Rodriguez has
observed that “most firms in the country
have a significant degree of interaction
with the country’s government,” meaning that
the executive order could in practice amount
to a full-scale trade embargo.</p>
<p>Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez
hit back at the embargo, calling it a
“dangerous step towards a total
asphyxiation” of the country’s economy.
Rodriguez went on to say that Venezuela
would appeal to international bodies, while
also calling for national unity. A march
rejecting Washington’s escalation is due to
take place on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called on UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN
Human Rights Chief to condemn what he termed
a “human rights” violation against the
Venezuelan people. He added that Venezuela
is working on an “alternative architecture”
to counter US sanctions, but which makes
transactions more costly.</p>
<p>For his part, the head of the Russian upper
house’s international affairs committee,
Konstantin Kosachev, said Tuesday the US
policy amounts to “international banditry.”
He told the state RIA Novosti news agency
that the move constitutes “open meddling
into Venezuela’s internal affairs.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, self-proclaimed “Interim
President” Juan Guaido wrote on Twitter that
the sanctions “safeguarded” CITGO and its
assets, as well as the Venezuelan private
sector which “does not do business with a
dictatorship.” The opposition leader
concluded that Washington’s latest actions
“look to protect Venezuelans.”</p>
<p>Guaido <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14244">declared</a>
himself “interim president” on January 23
and was promptly backed by the US and
regional allies. In the six months since,
the Venezuelan opposition has repeatedly
sought to oust the Maduro government,
including via an attempt to force “<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14347">humanitarian
aid</a>” across a closed
Venezuela-Colombia border on February 23 as
well as a failed <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14453">military
putsch</a> on April 30.</p>
<p>Monday’s embargo follows months of
escalating sanctions from the Treasury
Department against key sectors of the
Venezuelan economy, including <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14396">mining</a>,
<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14434">banking</a>,
and especially oil. Washington targeted
Caracas’ main source of foreign currency
with an <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14268">embargo</a>
in late January, while also imposing <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14527">restrictions</a>
on Venezuela’s ability to import diluents
and fuel. More recently, the Treasury
Department sanctioned the government’s <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14602">CLAP</a>
subsidized food program.</p>
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