The wrecking of Venezuela

TERRANCE BROWNE

THE NEWS about 20 Venezuelans losing their lives at sea for their one desire, that is, to have a better life for themselves and their families, should awaken in the hearts of the most harden of us all the need for justice, the need to ask why would someone die for wanting food and security for themselves and their families.

It is estimated that four million Venezuelans have left their country, many via precarious and dangerous routes and methods. Its time for this tragedy to cease. It’s a pity their nearest neighbours had so few voices of conscience and rectitude to recognise the core of the problem.

Our Prime Minister’s outburst of frustration could have been avoided if all these civil society groups, social activists, churches and radio talk shows didn’t remain silent while thousands appear on our shores, the recipients of collective trauma, suffering and unimaginable horror.

We are a sovereign nation with a desire to pay our own way, gain income through our people and our resources. We are aware of the politely hostile and the international bullies who desire us to make their enemies ours. And while in order for us to survive in this unfair environment we refrain from pursuing legitimate policy objectives, we must never get to the state where we remain silent in the face of the terror heaped on the innocent.

It is disingenuous for someone to use corruption, mismanagement and genocide to place the blame on the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela for the exodus, deaths and sufferings of Venezuelans on the high seas and across South America, while embracing as friends regimes that practise the same things that they choose to criticise.

All over the world these kinds of governments exist, moreso in Russia, North Korea and China, yet we are not seeing this exodus of people, so it can’t be the governmental corruption in Venezuela. And those who believe that we ought to keep quiet when they intervene in a sovereign nation and decide who they will accept as president and give themselves the right to make pronouncements in our country, we ought to reject. It’s a double standard for we are not hearing them saying the same things about Kim, Xi or Putin.

The Venezuela situation is nothing short of manslaughter committed against a hapless people. It is brazen economic terrorism. Maduro did not bring Venezuela to its knees and hence he is not the problem. The mismanagement, the corruption did not cripple the economy, it was the US sanctions.

The sanctions prevented Venezuela from restructuring its debts, buying food and medicine, spare parts for refineries, power stations and all relevant industries that supported the economy. England has frozen its gold and it has been unable to access millions of dollars in Citibank needed to purchase medication for the Venezuelan people. Citgo, the US-based Venezuela oil company, was blocked from accessing its profits in the US. These draconian measures are literally killing Venezuelans.

This humanitarian crisis is being created to force the people of Venezuela to rise up and overthrow the government or create the pretext for foreign intervention. However, it is doing neither. It is just making the poor suffer and creating problems for neighbouring countries.

In 2017, the first UN rapporteur in 21 years stated that the sanctions against Venezuela were so severe that they amounted to crimes against humanity. These sanctions amount to an economic blockade. There are no correspondent banks and as such the movement of US currency is not within the economic system, so payment for foreign goods and services is severely hindered.

Ninety-five per cent of Venezuela’s earnings come from oil so when this is curtailed through sanctions and bullying of other nations, including Caricom countries, with their fair share of puppets and the puppets at the Organization of American States, together with the European Union, the results are devastating. This has wrecked the economy of Venezuela and the people are fleeing by the millions. It has destroyed lives – and now death is on the high seas. This also is a violation of international law, which states that sanctions must not be used by outside powers to overthrow an elected government.

We need to start speaking out because we are feeling the brunt of these misguided and hypocritical policies against a sovereign state. We have done a lot in addressing the social issue of those coming to our shores but our capacity to do more is highly limited so indirectly we are being punished.

It’s incredible that people who believe they have a right to talk down to us should reprimand us, as members of Caricom, for not condemning the Maduro regime, while they practise violence against the Venezuelan people.

We have witnessed the bullying of Venezuela and Guyana over election issues but there is silence on Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Turkey. It’s time we ignore those hypocritical voices regardless of how powerful they think they are and raise our voices against the injustices that are being perpetrated against Venezuela and its people.