Capitalizing on Catastrophe | Punitive US Sanctions Intensify Amid Global Pandemic
common dreams
Every country is suffering right now.
Economies are imploding, entire sectors of the economy are being moth-balled, nationwide lockdowns are being implemented and governments are scrambling to support their citizens and maintain critical healthcare services.
Two countries already suffering under severe sanctions designed to choke the life out of their economies are now face even harsher sanctions against their countries and their peoples in the midst of a global pandemic.
Iran and Venezuelas, identified by the United States as growing threats to America and American interests have been in the cross hairs of US hegemonic foreign policy regime change operations for decades.
Historical Context in Brief
Iran had been a target of the US ever since the Iranian revolution of 1979. However, the conflict goes much further back than the US embassy hostage crisis and stems from Iran's 1951 parliamentary decision, lead by Mohammad Mossedegh, to nationalize the nations oil reserves. This meant the removal of APOC (Anglo-Persian Oil Company - British Petrolium - BP) from the country who had monopolized Iranian oil since 1914.
Subsequently, this led to the CIA coup overthrowing Mossadegh in 1953 who had achieved the nationalization of Iranian oil with the creation of the AIOC (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company). Working closely with UK and US oil companies the CIA helped to remove the democratically elected Mossadegh in Operation AJAX and replaced him with the Shah of Iran. This paved the way for the return of a consortium of foreign oil companies to bring Iranian crude to market in partnership with the Shah and the AIOC.
In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez took power in Venezuela in 1998 propelled to the presidency by a majority of supporters, known as Chavistas made up of the countries poor, rural and disenfranchised majority, propelled the Chavez to victory.
After assuming the presidency, Chavez gradually ordered the nationalization of the country's Oil companies. First, in 2003 Chavez overhauled the PDVSA (Venezuela’s state-owned oil company) dismissing prominent company executives and managers replacing them with hand picked loyalists.
Second, in 2007 the Venezuelan government passed a decree that nationalized the remainder of the oil development projects that were majority owned by international companies. The new decree stipulated that the PDSV must retain at least 60% ownership. Oil projects Companies such as ChevronTexaco, Statoil and BP agreed to continue operations with the new regulations but two notable companies, Exxon Mobile and ConocoPhilipps, refused to be part of such an arrangement and soon exited the country.
“We are recovering property and management in these strategic areas,” said Chavez. “The privatization of oil is over in Venezuela. This was the last area that we hadn’t recovered. This is the true nationalization of the oil. The oil belongs to all Venezuelans.”
Venezuela’s oil industry had been under private control until 1974, when Venezuela nationalized it. In the 1990’s, though, PDVSA engaged in a so-called “oil opening,” where it allowed more and more private companies to extract oil, via majority shares in joint ventures and the operating agreements.
Chavez supporters have long argued that oil was never truly nationalized in Venezuela because the same management controlled oil production after nationalization and that the oil industry never really operated under government control until the old management was fired in the wake of the December 2002 to January 2003 oil industry shutdown.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/2245
Since the early 2000s, the oil industry had invested billions in Venezuela's Orincono Oil field projects and began to see their profits diminish with the nationalization effort. Chavez's government began to divert more and more of the country's oil revenues in support of government social programs, health initiatives and wealth redistribution.
The nationalization of oil is an important parallel when observing the current US foreign policy towards both Iran and Venezuela. It helps to explain why the US has doggedly pursued these nations and the nature of the 'threat' posed to American interests, and more specifically American special interests.
Beneath the Surface
Iran and Venezuela are not just any countries with a few choice oil fields, these countries sit on top of 2 of the largest proven oil reserves on the planet. Venezuela tops the list with a reserve of 303 billion barrels, while Iran sits at #4 behind Saudi Arabia and Canada with 156 billion barrels. Taken together, Venezuela and Iran account for more than 1/4 (27%) of the proven oil reserves on the planet.
statista
It's no coincidence that both of these independent nations are atop the list of US adversaries. The oil conglomerates who were expelled from both countries want to regain access to these vast oil deposits.
Blocking Aid to Iran
In the Mid-East, Iran has been hardest hit by the spread of COVID-19. Currently, the country ranks as seventh in the world with over 50,000 cases and has recorded more than 3,200 deaths.
One of the biggest impediments for containing the outbreak has been the crushing sanctions imposed on the country by the United States. Ultimately, badly needed medical supplies, food, water and humanitarian aid has been strictly prevented from being delivered.
The restrictions placed on Iran by the sanctions make it nearly impossible for Iran to employ traditional financial channels to pay for the shipments of much needed masks, test kits and medical equipment.
Though many European allies disagree with the continued extreme tactics employed by Washington, they are reluctant to do business with Iran and risk US retaliation. Other nations are equally weary that any financial deals executed in a deal with Iran would be immediately frozen and void.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
"We lie, we cheat, we steal."
- Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo
The sadistic Mike Pompeo made clear what the State Department's top priorities are in his first comments on the Corona virus as fear of a pandemic began to seep into US national headlines in late February. Pompeo stated that sanctions would not only remain on both Iran and Venezuela at a time of crisis but that tighter economic controls would be enacted.
Vilifying Venezuela
It's no secret that the US desperately is seeking regime change in Venezuela and the removal of Nicolas Maduro from power. In 2019, the US rachetted up political and economic pressure on Venezuela in a series of escalations hoping to spark a popular revolt inside the country's borders by the Venezuelan people.
- The Trump admin called Venezuelan elections illegitimate and a fraud
- Named the opposition leader Juan Guaido Interim President of Venezuela
- Named Elliot Abrams (convicted war criminal) as US envoy to Venezuela
- Applied crippling Sanctions on Caracas
- Block Humanitarian Aid
- Created and International incident at the Columbian Venezuelan border
- Attempted to force Venezuela to accept "US Humanitarian Aid" amid unyielding sanctions
- Froze government bank accounts barring access to 6 billion in oil revenue.
- Severely limited trade with friendly nations
- Named member of the government "terrorists" and "thugs"
- etc.
The establishment narrative projected from legacy media almost completely ignores the effects of punitive sanctions and instead places the blame squarely on the Venezuelan government "corruption, mismanagement and failed policies that have brought Venezuela to its knees."
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/venezuela-sanctions-trump-intervention/
Despite the odds, the US attempt to force a coup and install CIA puppet Juan Guaido as president was a complete disaster. Plans to attack the country's electricity grid were also exposed thanks to documents found in the Wikileaks archive.
Nevertheless, the murderous sanctions remain.
In a report estimating the impact of the Trump administrations sanctions on Venezuela, authors Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot estimate that:
...the country experienced around forty thousand more deaths from 2017 to 2018, as well as 300,000 people put at risk through lack of access to medicine and health care.
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/venezuela-sanctions-trump-intervention/
Escalating Tensions with Venezuela
thegreyzone
On March 26th 2020, while COVID-19 cases in the US and across Europe were skyrocketing, the Justice Department once again took actions to step-up sanctions against the "Maduro regime" placing a $15 million dollar bounty on the president's capture. Against international norms, the US justified the move by accusing the Venezuelan government of "narco-terrorism, drug trafficking" and for "deploying cocaine as a weapon" against the American people.
US Attorney General William Barr accused Mr Maduro of conspiring with a faction of the Colombian Farc rebel group "to flood the United States with cocaine" and "devastate American communities".
Mr Barr said the Colombian rebels had "obtained the support of the Maduro regime, who is allowing them to use Venezuela as a safe haven from which they can continue to conduct their cocaine trafficking".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52133500
Weighing in on the matter, US president Donald Trump was quoted as stating - without irony:
“We must not let malign actors exploit the [coronavirus] situation for their own gain,”
source
Along with the new bounty, the 'narco-terorrist" designation, and increased sanctions, the US has deployed several Navy warships to the region in recent days. Suddenly, while the death toll from Covid-19 continues to explode within the borders of the United States, "narco-terrorism" and drug smuggling poses an imminent threat to the American people and stability in the region.
Labeling the Venezuelan government as "narco-terrorists' is laughable when compared to their neighbour, and current US ally, Colombia which reportedly produced 70% of the cocaine consumed globally in 2018.
Colombia has been embroiled in a decades long 'war on drugs' with the help of the US DEA trying, and failing miserably, to stem the flood of cocaine destined for American consumers. Armed conflicts resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Colombians at the hands of paramilitary groups, rebels, Columbian and US forces, corrupt government officials, and heavily armed drug cartels has continued on unabated.
Despite this 40 year 'War on Drugs' and support to the Colombian government through programs such as "Plan Colombia", Cocaine production and export to the United States has only continued to expand.
SOUTHCOM's own data refutes the notion that Venezuela is a major drug smuggling route. Some level of trafficking certainly exists in Venezuela but pale in comparison to their South American neighbours to the west.
fair.org
Exploiting the
It's becoming quite apparent that certain countries are being targeted by US foreign policy for reasons other than what is spouted by official government channels and their corporate mouth pieces.
The US starvation sanctions on both of Iran and Venezuela are meant to provoke actions that will justify US invasion and occupation. At the same time, they will claim they have liberated these countries from tyranny and now they are free to do business... with America.
The fact is, neither Iran nor Venezuela has used militarily force, occupied, taken aggressive action, or invaded another country in living memory.
Iran has been accused of conducting terrorism in throughout the Mid-East yet the United States has arguably done more than any other nation on earth to destabilize, arm, fracture, fund terrorism, support authoritarian leaders (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, UAE, etc.) bread terrorism and sectarian violence in this part of the world.
The US accuses Iran of a campaign of terror and of being a threat to the region when overwhelming evidence shows that it's the United States, it's allies and United States' foreign policy that has brought untold suffering and destruction upon the region.
The same applies for Venezuela. The US has a long history of hegemonic dominance throughout the Americas and has propped up authoritarian leaders and dictatorships such as Augusto Pinochet, armed and supplied death squads in Nicaragua and El Salvador and backed numerous coups attempts in Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela.
The dark history of US intelligence and military operation in South America is that they are accomplished to benefit US international corporations in: mining, oil, telecom, and even fruit companies.
reddit.com
