Contrary to the United States government’s claims that sanctions on Venezuela help fight the country’s corruption, sanctions are not protective measures for Venezuela. They come with a deadly cost for its people. As a result of over 15 years of sanctions on Venezuela, $5.5 billion of Venezuelan funds in international accounts have been frozen, leading to critical shortages of food and medical supplies.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, sanctions have affected more than 300,000 Venezuelans’ access to healthcare. This startling number includes 80,000 HIV-infected patients, 16,000 individuals in need of dialysis, and 16,000 cancer patients. Food imports have also dramatically decreased over the last decade—from $11.2 billion of purchases in 2013 to $2.46 billion in 2018—unequivocally due to a collapse of government revenue directly tied to restrictive sanctions.
The U.S. argues that sanctions are justified due to alleged human rights abuses and antidemocratic actions. Specifically, the sanctions are intended to reinstate democracy by ousting President Nicolás Maduro out of power and bring the U.S.-backed Juan Guaidó into leadership. Yet, these directives have harmful effects on the very people that it purports to protect. The Obama Administration first imposed sanctions on Venezuela due to concerns over alleged counter-terrorism and anti drug initiatives, as well as for alleged human rights abuses, anti-democratic action and corruption. Following this, the Trump Administration expanded economic sanctions on Venezuela in response to the rising perception of authoritarian rule under Maduro. In particular, Trump imposed an embargo inhibiting the US purchase of petroleum from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, in 2017. Trump also confiscated Venezuela’s $8 billion US subsidiary, CITGO. Because 90 percent of Venezuela’s revenue comes from oil, Trump’s actions led to a massive economic blow in Venezuela. Under the socialist government, oil revenue is largely supporting social programs such as food, health, and environmental protection.
Opponents urge the Biden Administration to keep stringent sanctions in place, while others suggest that the Treasury Department remove aspects of the sanctions that negatively affect the social, economic, and political rights of Venezuelans. In response, the State Department plans to enact a renewed focus on so-called “targeted sanctions” in cooperation with American allies, which focus on specific individuals. However, even with this renewed focus, the Biden Administration has failed to outline particular strategies on how these sanctions will not harm the Venezuelan people. In fact, mainstream think tanks, legislators, politicians and nongovernmental organizations have not adequately recognized and addressed the dire consequences that US sanctions have had in Venezuela. In particular, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A Nichols, circumvented questions about US sanctions having negative effects on Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis in a 2022 House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing. Nichols asserted that the country’s humanitarian crisis was “squarely” due to the late Hugo Chavez and Maduro’s governmental and economic mismanagement, as well as the failure of the Venezuelan private sector. In addition, a lengthy background piece about the Venezuelan crisis published by the Council on Foreign Relations in March 2023 only briefly referenced sanctions as a contributor to the country’s economic turmoil.
Recently, the Biden Administration has indicated that it will begin to provide sanctions relief. However, Venezuelan opposition representative Fernando Blasi argues that these strides are proceeding too slowly. Specifically, Blasi asserts that sanctions left in place by the Trump administration still persist, and the Biden Administration has not done much to ease sanctions other than supplying a license to Chevron allowing them to resume restricted oil production in Venezuela. According to Blasi, these Trump-era sanctions prioritized a regime change in Venezuela. Blasi noted that sanctions relief would provide reassurance for Venezuelans struggling with the stark reality of inflation in the country, which has led to school teachers walking out of their jobs to protest their meager salaries, and many children suffering from malnutrition and stunted growth. In particular, a third of Venezuelans are not getting enough food to eat, as estimated by the United Nations’ World Food Programme in 2020.
Clearly, citizens are suffering, and these sanctions are not making the country more democratic. The economic burdens that US sanctions imposed on Venezuelans disrupt access to basic human necessities like healthcare, food and running water. Venezuela’s water agency, Hidrocapital, reported that 15-20 percent of Venezuelans do not have access to potable water in Caracas because the government cannot obtain access to foreign-constructed parts necessary to repair damaged pipes and pumps due to US sanctions placed on the foreign water pump companies. This creates a negative feedback loop: While Hidrocapital trucks are instructed to carry water to communities in need, the lack of truck parts due to the sanctions on foreign companies has decreased the number of water trucks that deliver to those in need by 75 percent. Due to the lack of water, along with food and medical shortages, there was a 31 percent increase in the general mortality rate in Venezuela from 2017 to 2018, a period that also saw significant increases in US sanctions, amounting to more than 40,000 deaths. Furthermore, this lack of potable water has led Venezuelans to take matter into their own hands, some of whom collect water in buckets, in order to survive. As of November 2022, it has been estimated that Venezuelans suffer from no water for 109.2 hours in each 162 hour week.
Additionally, a United Nations report found that women and adolescent girls, the LGBTQI+ community, pregnant women, disabled individuals, indigenous people, impoverished Venezuelans and older persons are disproportionately affected by the US sanctions in Venezuela. The message is clear: sanctions cause further inequities that undermine the democratization of power.
Unclear to the majority of Americans, however, is that the US Department of State, at the command of multiple US Presidents, has been orchestrating a large-scale human rights crisis for decades. These sanctions are illegal, and violate the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS). Ironically, the head of the OAS has defended the US sanctions despite the violations of their own charter, raising significant concerns about the legitimacy and biases of the organization. Regardless, executive orders imposing sanctions must note that the US is suffering from a “national emergency” and is facing “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security” due to Venezuela’s actions. We must condemn these malicious and inhumane sanctions that are stripping Venezuelans of basic human rights. We must hold the Biden Administration, who indicated in 2021 that they were in “no rush” to lift the US sanctions on Venezuela, accountable. Likewise, legislators, think tanks and non-governmental organizations who claim to promote human rights must accurately spread global awareness on the unfortunate reality of how US sanctions have contributed to the Venezuelan economic and humanitarian crisis. In compliance with the idealized American values of equality, justice, and humanitarianism, we must stand in solidarity with our Venezuelan brothers and sisters, hold our representatives accountable, and continue to spotlight how the ills of the US State Department have detrimental effects on people and democracy.
About the Author
Rina Rossi is a UC Berkeley alumna and incoming graduate student at New York University, focusing on reproductive justice in the Caribbean. She has a forthcoming publication in the Latino Book Review and her writing has been published in the Daily Californian, Berkeley Political Review and ReVista: The Harvard Review of Latin America. Rina thanks Dr. Angela Marino for her support and mentorship while Rina researched US sanctions in Venezuela at UC Berkeley’s Democracy + Media Lab.