Venezuela April 7, 2019
UN Rapporteur: US Sanctions Against Venezuela Are Blunt Way to Engineer
Regime Change, Causing Blanket Starvation
US sanctions against Venezuela are like going into microsurgery with a
kitchen knife and are holding an entire population hostage, the UN special
rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures told The
Grayzone
By Michael Selby-Green
US-led sanctions against Venezuelas state owned oil company Petróleos de
Venezuela (PDVSA) are playing with fire, causing blanket starvation and
harming people with no stake in the leadership struggle, the UN official,
ambassador Idriss Jazairy said.
I have reviewed sanctions across the world. Very few of them have really
been a positive, helpful factor. Its like going into microsurgery using a
kitchen knife. Its a very blunt tool to achieve the proclaimed objective,
Jazairy said.
They usually contribute, and this is the case now in Venezuela, in
stimulating more suffering for innocent people that have no axe to grind in
the political dissent that exits in the country.
Jazairy, who monitors sanctions for the UN, joins the first UN official to
visit Venezuela for twenty-one years, Alfred de Zayas, in firmly condemning
the measures which both men say are killing Venezuelan citizens.
The special expert called it bizarre that at a time when Venezuela lacks
food and medicine, the US and its allies have intervened to restrict access
to both critical needs by imposing crushing new sanctions.
Jazairy made his comments just before the UN Human Rights Council approved a
resolution by Venezuela on 21 March, by a vote of twenty-seven to fifteen,
condemning the use of unilateral coercive measures like sanctions.
The resolution declared that the Human Rights Council was alarmed at the
disproportionate and indiscriminate human costs of unilateral sanctions and
their negative effects on the civilian population, in particular women and
children, of targeted States. It urged states to abide by international law
and remove illegal sanctions.
If you block all their financial resources, how would they be fed?
Jazairy is most critical of measures imposed by the United States against
PDVSA on 28 January which bar American individuals and companies from making
transactions with the state owned oil giant, and blocks its interests and
property in the US. He said the measures are causing starvation.
UN special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures Idriss Jazairy
Venezuela is heavily dependent on foreign imports of food and medicine which
it often pays for through oil sales. These generate around 98% of the
nations export earnings according to OPEC. By imposing sanctions on PDVSA,
the largest company in Venezuelas oil sector youre starving the country,
Jazairy said.
If you block all their financial resources, how would they be fed? Theyre
already in a bad situation. Five million have left the country because they
cant find subsistence and now youre going to make it worse by imposing
these sanctions. As I say, its playing with fire, he said.
He called it a mad world when the US starves people through sanctions
and threatens force if US humanitarian aid is not allowed to be delivered.
Would it not have made more sense to let the people survive in the first
place rather than weaponizing humanitarianism after starving them to trigger
civil war? he said.
Since backing Juan Guaidós coup attempt against current President Nicolas
Maduro, the US, EU, Canada and the UK have all imposed sanctions against
Venezuela which are illegal under international law.
The UN official predicted a terrible situation around the corner and the
possibility of tremendous violence if leaders dont change course.
The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on Mr Jaziarys
allegations.
Sanctions as Washingtons replacement for military intervention
On 28 January US secretary of state Mike Pompeo defended the measures
implemented against PDVSA. He said: These new sanctions do not target the
innocent people of Venezuela and will not prohibit humanitarian assistance
including the provision of medicine and medical devices, which are
desperately needed after years of economic destruction under Maduros rule.
The United States will continue to take concrete and forceful action
against those who oppose the peaceful restoration of democracy in
Venezuela.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has also
criticised the Venezuelan government.
In a statement to the Human Rights Council on March 20, she condemned the
dramatically deteriorating economic and social rights in the country and
highlighted reported abuses and alleged killings by pro-government security
forces which she said her office is investigating.
The next day, National Security Adviser John Bolton warned that the toughest
sanctions were yet to come, writing on Twitter: Unless Maduros usurpation
ends, he and his cronies will be strangled financially. The window is
closing.
Erich Ferrari, a lawyer and founder of a Washington DC-based law firm
specializing in US economic sanctions, told The Grayzone that an idea has
developed in Washington among some decision makers that the US can get
whatever it wants by applying sanctions.
Ferrari believes the US has moved from using sanctions as a tool to achieve
focused policy objectives to making them a strategy in their own right
replacing military intervention.
Sanctions used to be a tool to gain leverage as part of a boarder
diplomatic strategy. Now sanctions are the strategy, he said. I think they
view it as: We have a larger political problem with Venezuela, these are
some of the bad things Venezuela are doing to justify our sanctions.
The American appetite for military intervention has thankfully gone down
and this is seen as replacement to that. Its still violence. Its not
physical violence, its economic violence that were perpetrating against
others who we believe to be acting contrary to our interests.
Ferrari said sanctions are easier to sell to the US public because few
people understand them, and soldiers dont need to be sent to fight when the
US financial system and the dollar can be leveraged instead.
Jazairy has appealed to the United States for the sanctions to be lifted and
for Venezuelans to be allowed to resolve the crisis internally, he told The
Grayzone.
The UN special rapporteur successfully helped negotiate an end to US
economic sanctions against Sudan on 6 October 2017. He applauded the United
States for that decision and called on leaders to take similar action again
with Venezuela.
This is a recognition by the United Nations, that those sanctions that are
not approved by the Security Council have an adverse impact, he said.
The UN official called for the effects of the sanctions to be closely
monitored in the meantime, so they can be quickly reversed if the situation
in Venezuela starts exploding.
When lives are threatened by food and medicine shortages, the difference
between life and death can be a matter of hours and days rather then months,
he said.
We [special rapporteurs] are all independent, Jazairy continued. We dont
have an axe to grind in politics, and we just think of defending the
people.
International humanitarian law says that its a crime to take a population
hostage. Why are these people taken hostage? Solve the problem between
political leaders, but dont take innocent individuals as pawns in this
political game thats going on in Venezuela.
Michael Selby-Green
Michael is an investigative journalist. He previously worked on
investigations with The Sunday Times Insight team and The Guardian, and as a
reporter for Business Insider. Follow him at @MSelbyGreen