Biden Regime Renews Brutal Sanctions On Venezuela

The Biden regime was at Venezuela's feet for their oil in 2022. The war in Ukraine plunged the world into an energy crisis, and Venezuela could regain its status as a major oil biggie again.

Some Background.

In 2012, Barrack Obama praised Hugo Chavez for his leadership and achievements for the Venezuelan people. After Chavez’s demise, Nicholas Maduro succeeded him by winning the next elections. These elections were observed by international observers, including the Jimmy Carter foundation and were found to be fair and free.

• Venezuela had a mono-commodity economy heavily reliant on its oil exports. However, these oil exports made Venezuela one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America.

• Throughout the Chavez years, he tried to liberate countries like Haiti and Nicaragua buried under US sanctions and IMF loans, by giving these nations more suitable deals. These Venezuelan deals were funded through oil profits.

• When Maduro took power, he reinstated Chavez’s goal to liberate Haiti, and the rest of the Caribbean and Latin American nations from the stranglehold of IMF.

• The geopolitical wheels were turning. Efforts to go to war with Russia, a major oil and gas exporter, had begun. The US orchestrated a coup in Ukraine, provoking Russia. In return, Russia occupied Crimea, historically Russian and home to their black sea fleet at the Sevastopol naval base.

• The USA responded by sanctioning Russia to collapse their economy and force them back into their shock therapy years of the 1990s.

• This meant Venezuelan oil was going to play an important role in the global arena. Underestimating the popularity of Nicholas Maduro, the Obama regime declared Venezuela a threat to US national security. Venezuela’s nationalised oil barred American corporations from plundering their nation, and with sanctions on Russia, the US needed a supplement. This was described as a national security threat.

On March 8th 2015 Executive Order 13692 was signed by President Obama. EO 13692 has been renewed each year since.

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Maximum Pressure.

• The US regime claims that these sanctions only hurt the Maduro government and not the people of Venezuela. However, all independent researchers point to how the impact of these illegal sanctions has crippled the Venezuelan people.

• The Trump regime strangled Venezuela further by harshening the sanctions after Nicholas Maduro won re-election in 2017.

• They orchestrated an assassination attempt on President Maduro with a drone strike in August of 2018.

• Multiple UN special rapporteurs have examined the sanctions and their effects on Venezuelans since 2019. Alena Douhan, who visited Caracas in 2021, emphasized that the unilateral, illegal sanctions against Venezuela’s economic sectors like oil, mining and gold constituted a violation of international law.

• Douhan slammed the Trump regime for continuing a maximum-pressure campaign, to force a regime change in Venezuela. They picked the opposition national assembly leader, Juan Guido. 70% of Venezuelans had never heard of Guido. The goal was to sell Venezuelan oil to US-based cronies.

• Joe Biden has continued much of all Trump's foreign policies, including the harsh sanctions on Venezuela. On March 1st 2023, Joe Biden renewed EO 13692.

After spending months begging President Maduro for Venezuelan oil, the Biden regime has committed itself to continue the economic strangling of Venezuela.

Since the COVID pandemic, Venezuela strengthened their ties with Russia and China. The recent leftward shift in Latin America has meant Venezuela has more allies than it did in 2015 when these sanctions first hit.

• President AMLO of Mexico, President Lula of Brazil, President Pedro of Colombia and President Acre of Bolivia have all come together to support Venezuela in its quest to recover its economy.

• In 2022 Venezuela, under the leadership of Nicholas Maduro managed to bring down the inflation from 700% to under 7%, a mammoth achievement considering Venezuela was still under sanctions.

• After the war in Ukraine began, the US regime tried bullying Venezuela to resume their oil exports to EU nations, under the condition that President Maduro would have to condemn Russia over the war. The recovery of the Venezuelan economy would never have been possible if not for Russia and China.

• President Maduro rejected the US strongarming. Since then, he has repeatedly blamed the US and NATO for provoking the war in Ukraine, further becoming intolerable for the Biden regime.

Hence, despite begging Venezuela for its oil in 2022, it is no surprise the Biden regime is continuing with its sanction policy against Venezuela.

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Conclusion.

According to international law, unilateral sanctions are illegal. But the US regime has unilaterally sanctioned at least 32 countries, which amounts to more than 50% of the global population. Many of these sanctions are illogical and punitive measures against the global south nations trying to pursue independent foreign and trade policies and rejecting US imperialism and hegemony.

• Cuba: for sustainably carrying forward a revolution that ejected American businesses.

• Haiti: for being the first black nation to end slavery and defeating French colonists.

• Zimbabwe: for daring to pass land reform bills, overturning apartheid land policies.

• Mali: for booting French occupying troops from their country.

• Iran: has been under a blockade since they overthrew the US regime puppet, Shah Pahlavi.

• China: for surpassing the US in economy calculated by purchasing power of citizens.

• Iraq: to keep them from rebuilding since the US invasion.

• Afghanistan: home to $3.6 trillion worth of mineral resources, but the Taliban runs the government which the US failed to defeat since 2001.

• Russia: the Cold War never ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. One of the richest land full of resources, the US has been trying to balkanize Russia since the 90s.

• Gaza: for fighting Israeli apartheid.

• North Korea: for never being able to win the Korean war.

• Syria: for failing to topple the Assad government using ISIS and Al Nusra.

The list goes on and on. The US regime and its allies have tried and failed for almost two decades, but the Bolivarian Revolution lives on in Venezuela. From attempts to abduct Hugo Chavez to force a regime change, to drone strikes on Nicholas Maduro. However, the failure to understand and respect the sovereignty of developing nations, an alien concept for those leading the US empire, has united these countries in their struggle.

Sanctions, accompanied by an economic embargo and the illegal seizure of state assets, have led to a multifold rise in food insecurity and outbreaks of diseases while denying hundreds of thousands of people access to medical treatment.

The US diplomats and politicians sing the songs of human rights everywhere, lecturing other nations. These unilateral measures against Venezuela are a continuing violation of every human right that the US so boldly claims to defend.

The people in the global South are waking up to the evils of the US empire. When will the people in the belly of the beast called the USA rise up to gross crimes of their imperialism?

Sanctions against any country are a form of war. We must stand against all forms of war.