US waging economic, military warfare against world: Venezuela VP

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Apr 2023 10:44
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The Venezuelan Vice President says economic warfare against her country is equivalent to systematic human rights abuses.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez (Official Account of the Vice Presidency of Venezuela)

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez highlighted that Venezuela has lost $232 billion since 2015 when the United States under then-President Barak Obama imposed sanctions against the South American nation.

"You could see the impact [of sanctions on the country] when the oil production was falling. Since 2015, the losses have amounted to $232 billion. It is easy to say, but the losses of $232 billion in the main revenue source meant back then 99% of the revenue in foreign currency," Rodriguez pointed out.

She underlined that the US has imposed over 20,000 sanctions against 35 countries and has been "waging economic or military warfare against the entire world."

The high-ranking official indicated that after Washington declared Venezuela a "threat to its national security" in 2015, the West introduced 929 unilateral sanctions against the Latin American country, with US measures accounting for 60% of all Western sanctions.

Rodriguez considered that economic warfare against her country is equivalent to systematic human rights abuses, since Venezuelan people have been deprived of basic needs, including food, education, and healthcare.

In 2015, then-US President Barack Obama declared Venezuela a "threat to the US national security" and ordered the US Treasury Department to freeze foreign property and assets of several Venezuelan officials.

In 2019, Washington imposed comprehensive sanctions on Caracas, especially targeting the country's oil and financial industries as well as freezing its reserves amid the political crisis in the country, as Washington recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's interim president instead of democratically re-elected leader Nicolas Maduro.