{"id":180798,"date":"2021-03-15T12:01:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=180798"},"modified":"2021-03-12T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T06:00:06","slug":"un-rebuke-of-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-met-with-stunning-media-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/03\/un-rebuke-of-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-met-with-stunning-media-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Rebuke of US Sanctions on Venezuela Met with Stunning Media Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

10 Mar 2021 – <\/em>Alena Douhan, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, published<\/a> her preliminary report on February 12 on the impact of US and European sanctions on Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The report laid bare how a years-long campaign of economic warfare has asphyxiated Venezuela\u2019s economy, crushing the government\u2019s ability to provide basic services both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Venezuelan] government\u2019s revenue was reported to shrink by 99%, with the country currently living on 1% of its pre-sanctions income,\u201d Douhan found, impeding \u201cthe ability of Venezuela to respond to the Covid-19 emergency.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Douhan thus urged<\/p>\n

the governments of the United Kingdom, Portugal and the United States and corresponding banks to unfreeze assets of the Venezuela Central Bank to purchase medicine, vaccines, food, medical and other equipment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The campaign to overthrow the Venezuelan government, Douhan added, \u201cviolates the principle of sovereign equality of states and constitutes an intervention in domestic affairs of Venezuela that also affects its regional relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douhan\u2019s report follows a Center for Economy and Policy Research (CEPR) paper<\/a> that estimated that sanctions were responsible for over 40,000 deaths in Venezuela in 2017\u201318\u00a0 (FAIR.org<\/b>, 6\/14\/19<\/a>). Though sanctions were not the only factor driving economic hardship, CEPR found that they<\/p>\n

exacerbated Venezuela\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like the CEPR study, Douhan\u2019s report has been categorically ignored across establishment media.<\/p>\n

By omitting the devastating impact of sanctions, corporate media attribute sole responsibility for economic and humanitarian conditions to the Venezuelan government, thereby using the misery provoked by sanctions to validate the infliction of even more<\/i> misery.<\/p>\n

Collective punishment<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n

\"Darth<\/p>\n

Darth Vader: seen by the US as a role model.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

US and European officials have long admitted that the sanctions regime against Venezuela is collective punishment by design<\/i>. Speaking to G20 foreign ministers in May 2018, then\u2013British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The feeling I get from talking to my counterparts is that they see no alternative to economic pressure\u2014and it\u2019s very sad, because obviously the downside of sanctions is that they can affect the population that you don\u2019t want to suffer. But in the end things have got to get worse before they get better\u2014and we may have to tighten the economic screw on Venezuela.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On March 22, 2019, a senior US government official bragged<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The effect of the sanctions [against Venezuela] is continuing and cumulative. It\u2019s sort of like in Star Wars<\/i> when Darth Vader constricts somebody\u2019s throat, that\u2019s what we are doing to the regime economically.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A year later, as the Covid-19 virus spread globally, US Attorney General William Barr gloated<\/a> that the pandemic was<\/p>\n

good timing, actually.\u2026 The [Trump] administration is taking a kind of \u201ckick them while they\u2019re down\u201d approach, seemingly with the hope that by piling on sanctions and other actions, the administration can capitalize on the virus in Iran and Venezuela to spur greater public opposition to the incumbent governments and perhaps regime change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAlthough sanctions do not seem to be physical warfare weapons,\u201d the Lancet<\/b> (3\/18\/20<\/a>) noted, \u201cthey are just as deadly, if not more so. Jeopardising the health of populations for political ends is not only illegal but also barbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media silence<\/b><\/h3>\n

Many Western journalists, however, appear not to have seen these overt declarations of collective punishment against the Venezuelan population\u2014a crime against humanity<\/a> under Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, according to former UN Expert Alfred de Zayas.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Guardian:<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/strong> (3\/17\/20<\/a>) gets blame for Maduro into the subhead\u2013but doesn\u2019t mention sanctions until the penultimate paragraph.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Loath to abandon belief in the fundamentally benign nature of Western foreign policy, corporate scribes have typically presented the devastating effects of sanctions as a mere accusation of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. \u201cMaduro\u2026said US sanctions were hurting his administration\u2019s ability to buy medicines and foodstuffs\u201d was the next-to-last paragraph of a Guardian<\/b> piece (3\/17\/20<\/a>) on Covid in Venezuela whose subhead read, \u201cContinuing chaotic situation under Nicol\u00e1s Maduro leaves hospitals and health services desperately unprepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, they fail to mention<\/a> sanctions at all. In June 2019, for instance, the Guardian<\/b>\u2019s Tom Phillips<\/a> reported that \u201cmore than 4 million Venezuelans have now fled economic and humanitarian chaos,\u201d citing would-be coup leader Juan Guaid\u00f3\u2019s claim that the country\u2019s economic collapse \u201cwas caused by the corruption of this regime,\u201d without making any reference to Washington\u2019s campaign of economic warfare.<\/p>\n

Keeping with tradition, Douhan\u2019s damning report has been met with stunning silence by establishment media outlets. Neither the Guardian<\/b>, New York Times<\/b>,\u00a0 Washington Post<\/b> nor BBC<\/b> reported on Douhan\u2019s findings, leaving the task primarily to alternative media (Venezuelanalysis<\/b>, 2\/15\/21<\/a>; Canary<\/b>, 2\/13\/21<\/a>).\u00a0 (CNN<\/b>\u20142\/13\/21<\/a>\u2014had an exceptional report focused on the UN report, which noted Douhan\u2019s statement that sanctions \u201cconstitute violations of international law.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The issue is not that Western media are uninterested in Venezuela. In February 2019, the month after Juan Guaid\u00f3 declared himself president, the Guardian<\/b> published 67 separate articles about Venezuela, regularly citing<\/a> the UN on Venezuela\u2019s economic and humanitarian conditions\u2014signaling Maduro\u2019s sole responsibility for a crisis about which something must surely be done<\/i>.<\/p>\n

For example, the Guardian<\/b> (2\/27\/19<\/a>) reported in 2019, \u201cThe UN\u2019s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela\u2019s health system\u201d\u2014while making no reference to sanctions.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the New York Times<\/b>, whose editorial board had supported<\/a> 10 out of 12 US-backed coups in Latin America since 1954, has regularly covered<\/a> the deteriorating economic situation in Venezuela with\u2014at best\u2014only fleeting reference<\/a> to US and European sanctions.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/b> (12\/5\/20<\/a>), for instance, described how \u201cYajaira Paz, 35, has lost nearly everything\u201d to the Venezuelan economic crisis: \u201cher mother, dead from a heart problem she could not afford to treat; her brothers, to migration; her faith in democracy, to the nation\u2019s crippled institutions\u201d \u2014 omitting any mention of sanctions.<\/p>\n

\n

\"WaPo:<\/p>\n

The Washington Post Magazine<\/strong> (3\/3\/21<\/a>) reports that \u201cmost Venezuelans eat fewer than two meals a day\u201d\u2013but doesn\u2019t mention that it\u2019s US government policy to make their lives worse.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Washington Post Magazine<\/b> (3\/3\/21<\/a>) ran a similarly emotive article<\/a>, noting how \u201cthe pandemic wore away even more access to basic necessities in a country racked by deepening poverty and crisis,\u201d blaming \u201cthe national mismanagement of resources\u201d and, again, ignoring the existence of sanctions.<\/p>\n

Corporate media thus consistently emphasizes the gravity of Venezuela\u2019s humanitarian situation while overlooking crucial evidence on the catastrophic impact of sanctions, fortifying the very narratives deployed to justify the economic siege against Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The collective silence over Douhan\u2019s report is only the most recent case of propaganda by omission on Venezuela. By refusing to acknowledge Washington and London\u2019s fundamental role in making Venezuela\u2019s \u201ceconomy scream<\/a>,\u201d corporate media play a key part in manufacturing consent for regime change.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John McEvoy is an independent journalist whose work has featured in the<\/em> International History Review, Declassified UK, the Canary, Tribune, Brasil Wire and others<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – fair.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10Mar 2021 – By omitting the devastating impact of sanctions, corporate media attribute sole responsibility for economic and humanitarian conditions to the Venezuelan government, thereby using the misery provoked by sanctions to validate the infliction of even more misery. US and European officials have long admitted that the sanctions regime against Venezuela is collective punishment by design. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":180800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[2375,867,2314,1138,1855,234,923,124,70,557],"class_list":["post-180798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-alternative-media","tag-anglo-america","tag-corporate-media","tag-fake-news","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-media","tag-sanctions","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}