This
paper looks at some of the most important impacts of the economic
sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US government since August of
2017. It finds that most of the impact of these sanctions has not
been on the government but on the civilian population.
The
sanctions reduced the public’s caloric intake, increased disease
and mortality (for both adults and infants), and displaced millions
of Venezuelans who fled the country as a result of the worsening
economic depression and hyperinflation.
They
exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis and made it nearly
impossible to stabilize the economy, contributing further to excess
deaths. All of these impacts disproportionately harmed the poorest
and most vulnerable Venezuelans.
Even
more severe and destructive than the broad economic sanctions of
August 2017 were the sanctions imposed by executive order on January
28, 2019 and subsequent executive orders this year; and the
recognition of a parallel government, which as shown below, created a
whole new set of financial and trade sanctions that are even more
constricting than the executive orders themselves.
We
find that the sanctions have inflicted, and increasingly inflict,
very serious harm to human life and health, including an estimated
more than 40,000 deaths from 2017–2018; and that these sanctions
would fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian
population as described in both the Geneva and Hague international
conventions, to which the US is a signatory. They are also illegal
under international law and treaties which the US has signed, and
would appear to violate US law as well.
Full
report:
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