June 17, 2023
Jorge Rodríguez, President of the Venezuela National Assembly
The Venezuelan National Assembly (NA) has issued a statement in response to the recent declarations made by former US President Donald Trump, where he publicly confesses that during his term in office he was about to make Venezuela collapse. These statements sought to question the fact that Joe Biden’s government is currently buying oil from the country, arguing that it could have been stolen.
The fact is that what the former U.S. president said confirms what was already known by the evidence and what Venezuelans have experienced firsthand.
“The confession makes the proof, that is the true principle from which this concept that is already in daily use (…) we have to say that, that when a confession is made, it is the proof that makes the proof. ) it must be said that when a person confesses a crime, in this case a criminal offense, in this case a crime against humanity, that confession becomes proof, if it is a confession made voluntarily as indeed happened by Mr. Donald Trump in a speech he made publicly on June 11; if it is a voluntary confession that is not subject to any kind of coercion, that confession immediately becomes sufficient proof of a crime”, said the president of the Legislative Power, Jorge Rodríguez, during the ordinary session of this Tuesday, June 13.
Likewise, he pointed out that what Trump said is equivalent to confessing that he murdered children who could not receive adequate vaccinations; adults who, within the Simón Bolívar program (of CITGO), were treated for chronic diseases; the same happens if the social programs of the great majorities in terms of food, health and education are affected.
The president of the NA pointed out that if those criminal courts or international tribunals were for real, if they were pursuing criminals, the first thing they would have to do is to summon Trump to be indicted after confessing those crimes against humanity.
“He is not confessing to one homicide or two, he is confessing to thousands of homicides,” he argued, while pointing out that “he subjected to war practices a peaceful country that has never in its life assaulted a single American citizen.”
Rodríguez called on the opposition in general to reflect on where they were in 2019, when the greatest destabilization attempts were committed against Venezuela. In that sense, he rebuked several opposition politicians who were on the side of Trump’s murderous policies and are currently participating in the primaries, as if they were suffering from amnesia.
He denounced that the Guaidó clan and other Venezuelan oppositionists were accomplices inasmuch as what they offered as a guarantee to carry out the plans against President Maduro was oil. He said that some, jumping forward, were outraged with Trump’s confession and tried to take political advantage of it by calling for unity, an occasion he used to ask where the resources were delivered to the opposition to “help Venezuelans”.
The Legislative Branch has called to investigate the consequences of Donald Trump’s criminal confessions, especially those who followed the orders of the former U.S. president, as well as Mark Esper, John Bolton, James Story, Mike Pence and Marco Rubio.
In this sense, he asked to incorporate in the Draft Agreement to be voted in the NA the formation of a Commission to investigate the crimes against humanity that Trump perpetrated against the Venezuelan people,and to investigate the internal accomplices, those who received orders.
“Let us form, deputies of all political fractions, a Special Commission of Investigation of the consequences of the confession made by Donald Trump last June 11”, said Rodriguez.
The evidence of crimes against humanity against the country goes beyond what the government and citizens can tell of their experiences. The damage to the nation and its population was systematized in reports of independent experts of the United Nations Organization (UN), whose accounts reveal the criminal nature of the “sanctions”.
According to the report of the UN independent rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas, published in 2018, the conclusions were as follows:
– “The effects of sanctions imposed by Presidents Obama and Trump and unilateral measures by Canada and the European Union have directly and indirectly exacerbated medicine shortages.”
– “Economic sanctions have caused delays in distribution (of food, medicines and basic necessities) and have contributed to many deaths (…) Economic sanctions kill.”
– “They have greatly aggravated food and medicine shortages, caused serious delays in distribution and triggered the phenomenon of mass emigration to neighboring countries.”
– “Economic sanctions that affect innocent populations contravene the spirit and letter of the Charter of the United Nations.”
The record of the impacts of the blockade on the Venezuelan population indicate that such actions could represent crimes against humanity. De Zayas affirmed that the unilateral coercive measures applied against Venezuela have delayed the acquisition of medicines for people with risky and difficult to treat diseases, causing many deaths due to the delay in the arrival of medical treatments.
Zayas also documented how the closure of international accounts of the Venezuelan State has blocked the importation of food and medicines, in addition to the international credit restrictions that have emptied the foreign currency reserves of Venezuelan institutions to face the crisis.
On the other hand, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, also recorded the great damage caused by the blockade in 2021. In her report she stated that the unilateral “sanctions” violate International Law and called for their lifting. We quote here from her findings:
“Referring to the customary rules on the immunity of State property, the Special Rapporteur recalls that the assets of the Central Bank and the property used for public functions belong to the State of Venezuela and not to its Government or to any individual. Therefore, the freezing of the assets of the Central Bank of Venezuela for not recognizing its Government, as well as the adoption of the relevant sanctions, violates the sovereign rights of the country and prevents its effective government from exercising its duty to guarantee the needs of the population.
“The Special Rapporteur stresses that the inclusion of State officials on the list ex officio contradicts the prohibition against punishing an activity that does not constitute a crime, prevents officials from representing Venezuela’s interests in international courts and other international institutions, and undermines the principle of sovereign equality of States. She also notes that the repeated refusals of banks in the United States, United Kingdom and Portugal to release Venezuelan assets even for the purchase of medicines, vaccines and protection kits, under the control of international organizations, violates the aforementioned principle and impedes Venezuela’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 emergency.
“The Special Rapporteur is concerned that unilateral targeted sanctions in their current form violate, at a minimum, obligations under universal and regional instruments in the field of human rights, many of which are peremptory in nature.
(…)
“The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that the application of extraterritorial jurisdiction to nationals and companies of third States for cooperation with Venezuelan public authorities, nationals and companies, and alleged threats to such third States, is not justified under international law and increases the risks of over-enforcement of sanctions. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern the alleged threats to private companies and to third-country donors, partners and humanitarian organizations.”
Douhan included a number of hard data with which to attest to the severity of the sanctions impact in the areas of public services (infrastructure), as well as food and sanitation. He expressed at the time:
– “The “sanctions” have hindered the purchase of medicines and medical supplies abroad, on which the Venezuelan public health sector depends almost entirely.
– The acquisition of human albumin, immunoglobulin and other blood products has been prevented, affecting 5,859 people suffering from hemophilia and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
– More than 2,500,000 patients were affected by the impossibility of the Venezuelan State to purchase blood reagents in 2020.
– Some 2 million 600 thousand children could not be vaccinated against meningitis, rotavirus, malaria and measles due to the obstruction to the purchase of vaccines through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
– Continuing the economic blockade in the context of the pandemic has caused greater instability in the most vulnerable strata of the Venezuelan population. “Some 43% of households report the impossibility of working or the loss of their resources,” said Douhan.
Finally, a report published in 2019 by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a Washington, D.C.-based economic policy think tank, acknowledged that:
“Sanctions reduced the caloric intake of the population, increased disease and mortality (for both adults and children), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a product of worsening economic depression and hyperinflation. Sanctions exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis and made it nearly impossible to stabilize the economy, which further contributed to a higher death toll. All of these impacts disproportionately hurt the poorest and most vulnerable Venezuelans.”
The CEPR lists some of the consequences of the “sanctions” implemented since August 2017:
– More than 40 thousand deaths would have been a direct and indirect consequence of the coercive measures between 2017 and 2018.
– The availability of food and medicines was reduced, and diseases and mortality in the country increased.
– The 2017 “sanctions” “contributed to a sharp decline in oil production that caused great harm to the civilian population.”
– The experts considered that “if the sanctions applied by the United States (…) continue, they will result in tens of thousands more deaths that could be preventable.”
– “This is supported – the authors of the report continue – by the fact that there are approximately 80 thousand people with HIV who have not received antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16 thousand people in need of dialysis, 16 thousand people with cancer and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension (many of whom cannot obtain insulin or medicines for cardiovascular treatment)”.
– According to the report, “since the January 2019 sanctions were imposed, oil production has fallen by 431 thousand barrels per day or 36.4%”, which would accelerate the picture of crisis imposed on Venezuela.
All these reports have been covered and reviewed by multiple tribunes and study platforms on the aggression against Venezuela, the consequences of the economic attacks on the population have been recorded in various ways, and yet many of those involved in this destructive agenda are able to confess, like Donald Trump himself, that the purpose of everything was the collapse of a country with political and strategic objectives for the United States.
Source: Mision Verdad, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English