Whitney Webb
Mint Press News
Mint Press News
“What’s at stake is the enormous, enormous natural resources of Venezuela. And I sense that if Venezuela had no natural resources no one would give a damn about Chavez or Maduro or anybody else there.”
— Former UN official Alfred de Zayas
LONDON — In a comprehensive interview with the U.K.-based outlet The Independent
published on Sunday, former special UN rapporteur Alfred de Zayas
claimed that crippling U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela for the past
several years are illegal and amount to “economic warfare” against the
Bolivarian Republic. De Zayas also asserted that the U.S. sanctions
targeting Venezuela could amount to “crimes against humanity” under
international law, share much of the responsibility for the current
economic crisis in Venezuela, and have resulted in needless deaths of
Venezuelans as a result.
De Zayas, who completed his term at
the UN less than a year ago, has been critical of the U.S. sanctions
regimen — which began in earnest in 2015 when former President Barack
Obama declared Venezuela a “national security threat” without evidence. Since then, President Donald Trump has intensified sanctions and has also openly mulled a military intervention in the country, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Notably, this is not the first time that de Zayas has spoken up about the dangerous consequences of U.S. sanctions. Last September, de Zayas presented an explosive report he had helped compile to the UN Human Rights Council, showing that “economic warfare,” and sanctions in particular, practiced by the U.S. and its allies have greatly exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis. The U.S. had withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council a few months prior to the release of de Zaya’s report, citing the body’s alleged bias against Israel.
Though de Zayas also blamed the Venezuelan government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, for overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption, his report called for the International Criminal Court to investigate economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Venezuela as a possible crime against humanity per Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
In his report, which de Zayas claims has been largely ignored by the UN since its release, the former UN rapporteur wrote:
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Notably, this is not the first time that de Zayas has spoken up about the dangerous consequences of U.S. sanctions. Last September, de Zayas presented an explosive report he had helped compile to the UN Human Rights Council, showing that “economic warfare,” and sanctions in particular, practiced by the U.S. and its allies have greatly exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis. The U.S. had withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council a few months prior to the release of de Zaya’s report, citing the body’s alleged bias against Israel.
Though de Zayas also blamed the Venezuelan government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, for overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption, his report called for the International Criminal Court to investigate economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Venezuela as a possible crime against humanity per Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
In his report, which de Zayas claims has been largely ignored by the UN since its release, the former UN rapporteur wrote:
Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns….Twenty-first-century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees.”De Zayas went on to the tell The Independent that “sanctions kill” and discussed how these measures disproportionately affect the poorest of society and often cause deaths from the resulting shortages in food, medicine and other essential goods. He also told The Independent that these tactics aimed at a country’s most vulnerable civilians were intended to coerce economic chaos and regime change in Venezuela.
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