news Greg Casar (D-TX) slams US sanctions on Venezuela: 'contributing to the desperation'

[Virgos Groove]

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"How can we blame asylum-seekers fleeing desperation and poverty if we're contributing to the very desperation and poverty that they're trying to escape?" Democratic Rep. Greg Casar of Texas told The Intercept. "At the end of the day, what we have seen in practice is that we don't usually get the freedom of press and free and fair elections and transparency that we ask for. What we wind up getting is hungrier everyday people."

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As the Washington Post recently reported, U.S. sectoral sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry contributed to one of the most severe peacetime economic contractions ever recorded, significantly more severe than the Great Depression.

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Sanctions have become an increasingly popular tool for U.S. foreign policy because they are perceived to be less harmful than outright war or proxy war. United Nations experts have argued that these coercive measures amount to economic warfare, and civilians harmed by sanctions "deserve the same protections provided by the Geneva Conventions to people in war."

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As Venezuela erupted into protests in the aftermath of the vote, Rodríguez argued that the influence of U.S. sanctions may be hardening both Maduro's stance and that of the opposition. "The government is also uncompromising, of course, but I think that it's made finding agreement much more difficult, because the opposition sees itself as backed by the U.S," Rodríguez said.

From "U.S. sanctions have devastated Venezuela. How does that help democracy?" (The Intercept).

 

Pretty interesting article.

[Cesar]

Casar made some points

[Gui Blackout]

Oh so sanctions are bad now, hmm interesting.

[wastedpotential]

I'm of very mixed minds when it comes to sanctions in places like Venezuela. For one, any effect they might've had at coercion has come and gone, so they're no longer working as a deterrent, and all they do is increase human suffering, because the small amount of money that gets in goes straight to the top. However (and as we've seen in the past when sanctions have been lessened), the overwhelming majority of the increased wealth and prosperity gets funneled to the rulership, to the point where previous sanctions reductions have largely served as a reward and haven't had much impact on relieving the material conditions of the population. Basically, now that sanctions are in place and the short term effects have been felt, it's a damned if you do/damned if you don't for removal. If there was some way to guarantee that the money would reach the pockets of the citizenry and wouldn't be siphoned off in the process, I think that would be an easy decision, but as of now any relief would probably increase the quality of life for your average Venezuelan by a marginal amount and would also bolster the positions of the regime further, and it's hard to say if that tradeoff is worth it. For oil sanctions in particular, since the companies are entirely owned by the elite, pay zero taxes, and have zero trickle down, I don't think removing sanctions has any effect except as a potential carrot in negotiations, but that ship has seemingly sailed for the time being post-election. Ultimately, it's a shitty situation made worse by the fact that there are almost zero incentives for either the Venezuelan government or the US government to compromise, and the people of Venezuela are trapped in the middle.