Yoselina Guevara L.
On Tuesday, December 6, the National Dialogue Forum in Venezuela was held online, organized by the Consulate of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Quito, the Consul Pedro Sassone and the collaboration of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity, Ecuador Chapter, and CPAZ Coordinating Committee for Peace, Sovereignty and Non-interference; The main speaker was the Vice Minister of anti-blockade policies of Venezuela and member of the Venezuelan government delegation at the dialogue table and the comments of Monica Palacios, Assemblywoman of the Citizen Revolution for USA-Canada, and Milton Ortega, Ecuadorian political analyst.
Although the main topic of the Forum was the resumption of the dialogue between the Venezuelan government and a sector of the opposition and with it the signing on November 26, 2022 of the second partial agreement for the protection of the Venezuelan people, it became imperative to make known in depth the mechanism of the sanctions and the economic and financial blockade that Venezuela is currently experiencing. By virtue of this, Deputy Minister William Castillo made a presentation in which he revealed details with statistical tables of the effects of said blockade.
Renewal of sanctions as from 2015
As from 2015, the President of the United States Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13692 with which Venezuela was catalogued as an “unusual and extraordinary threat”, applying through this decree unilateral coercive measures as part of a systematic policy of cruel aggressions at an economic and financial level to the South American country, which are sustained and supported by sectors of the Venezuelan opposition. It should be noted that the mechanism of the imposition of sanctions by Washington on a number of countries, including Cuba, Iran and Russia, is fully known as a result of the search for a change of government in those nations that do not submit to its designs.
In this regard, Vice Minister William Castillo explained that “the sanctions are part of a bipartisan policy, that is to say, what is being done in the United States does not depend on the US president in office. It was a policy initiated by Barack Obama, continued and deepened by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, despite having nuances of a different position, the measures of sanctions and aggression against Venezuela are maintained and have not been lifted at any time, nor does the United States intend to lift them”.
Decrease in oil revenues
In August 2017, the United States intensified the imposition of sanctions; Donald Trump blocked the Venezuelan government’s access to U.S. financial markets, including the main oil company PDVSA, the nerve engine of the Venezuelan economy. In this sense, since the toughest economic sanctions were imposed, Venezuela’s oil production, which represents an important income for the country, falls to historic lows. From this, it can be understood that the Venezuelan government, lacking financing in the financial markets, is suffering a disaster in its accounts which is reflected in the explosion of an internal economic crisis with an almost limitless hyperinflation.
Regarding this issue, Vice Minister Castillo pointed out that “Venezuela went from having 56. 609 million dollars of foreign currency income in 2013, to 743 million dollars in 2020; that is to say a 99% drop in oil income in seven years… The terrible drop in oil production occurs in two big moments: August 2017 and January 2019 which are the two toughest rounds of sanctions against PDVSA and accelerate the drop and lead to the loss of production of three thousand 700 million barrels in seven years and to a patrimonial loss of PDVSA, only in drop in production of 214 billion dollars. This is an attack that a small country, a medium-sized country, that no European economy can withstand a fall of 30, 40 billion dollars in a consecutive manner and that is the magnitude of the attack that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has received and is receiving”.
927 Direct and indirect sanctions against Venezuela
It is necessary to highlight that since the United States started this criminal policy against Venezuela it has not stopped; according to data from the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory between 2014 and 2022 the South American country received a sanction every three days totaling 927 unilateral coercive measures. Of the latter 763 are direct sanctions from the United States, the European Union and other countries (United Kingdom, Switzerland, Panama and Canada). In addition there are 164 restrictive measures dictated by countries and the international financial system which are derived from the sanctions that prevent, for example, transfers for the purchase of vaccines; of high-cost medicines for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc. The sanctions are derived from the sanctions that prevent, for example, transfers for the purchase of vaccines; high cost medicines for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc.; for the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) that distribute the bags of food subsidized by the national government to all Venezuelan families ; spare parts for hydroelectric plants, etc.
Legality of the sanctions
From the point of view of international law, sanctions are illegal; they are a mechanism used by Washington to force the sovereign will of another State. Sanctions are not directed exclusively against Venezuelan companies and Venezuelans, they also affect citizens and companies of the United States and other countries, which must comply with them if they do not want to see their economic interests in North America compromised.
Beyond everything that can be explained about the blockade, the great affected by the sanctions in their right to life, food, health and development is the brave Venezuelan people, but despite all the models and manuals of unconventional warfare that have been applied by U.S. imperialism, they have not been able and will not be able to bend their iron and firm will to be free and sovereign.
Yoselina Guevara López: social communicator, political analyst, columnist in different international media, whose work has been translated into English, Italian, Greek and Swedish. Winner of the Simón Bolívar 2022 National Journalism Award (Venezuela), special mention Opinion; Aníbal Nazoa 2021 National Journalism Award (Venezuela); I Historical Memory Contest Comandante Feliciano 2022 (El Salvador) Third place.
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