Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Former UN Rapporteur on Human Rights: US Sanctions Have Killed More Than 100 Thousand Venezuelans
Orinoco Tribune
04 Mar 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Former UN Rapporteur on Human Rights: US Sanctions Have Killed More Than 100 Thousand Venezuelans
Former UN Rapporteur on Human Rights: US Sanctions Have Killed More Than 100 Thousand Venezuelans

Catastrophic death and massive emigration are due to Washington’s financial suffocation and blockade of the socialist-governed country.

“Unilateral coercive measures constitute a crime against humanity.”

The Swiss-American historian and Human Rights expert, Alfred de Zayas, said that more than 100,000 Venezuelans have died as a result of the sanctions implemented by the United States government and that such deaths were due to the impossibility of timely access to medicines.

De Zayas, who served as an independent expert for the United Nations Human Rights Council for the promotion of an international democratic and egalitarian order, participated on Wednesday in the forum “Unilateral Coercive Measures as a crime against humanity: The case of Venezuela”, held in Geneva, Switzerland, and which was attended by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, as well as other academics specializing in international law.

Referring to the effects of unilateral sanctions and citing economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot, the professor said that considering only the year 2018, 40,000 of those deaths were caused by the sanctions. For that reason, he does not hesitate to affirm: “February 13 is a key day in the Venezuelan case. Unilateral coercive measures kill, I found in my report, constitute a crime against humanity.”

“Such deaths were due to the impossibility of timely access to medicines.”

On the other hand, the historian also alluded to Venezuelan migration. In his opinion, “the migratory flows of Venezuela have their origin in financial suffocation, in the blockade. That is the cause and they want to ignore it, they seek to blame the victim”, in reference to the criminalization of Venezuelan migration and other xenophobic practices that are growing in some countries of Latin America, as well as the almost hegemonic tendency to blame the government of President Nicolás Maduro and even that of his predecessor, Commander Hugo Chávez, for being responsible for the crisis and forcing the exit of millions of Venezuelans.

For de Zayas, the brakes on coercive measures implemented against the government and people of Venezuela, denounced last week by Foreign Minister Arreaza before the International Court of Justice as crimes against humanity, is the action of UN Human Rights Council from a multilateral perspective. Only this would prevent more vulnerable people from dying.

“We must save multilateralism, we must demand the Human Rights Council provide advice, the necessary technical assistance to the Venezuelan people, to prevent more vulnerable people from losing their lives,” he said.

This article previously appeared in the Orinoco Tribune.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

Regime Change Venezuela

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
Jacqueline Luqman
Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
03 May 2022
The 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was undone because of popular action.
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
Dan Beeton
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
26 April 2022
The legacy of Venezuela’s short-lived 2002 coup d’etat, and the subsequent countercoup, endures for US-Latin American relations.
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court –  Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
Roger D. Harris
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court – Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
12 April 2022
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protects the rights of Alex Saab.
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
Roger D. Harris
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
06 April 2022
Alex Saab’s April 6 hearing takes place in the setting of a mercurial world situation, where events in Ukraine may have indirect bearing on his
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
24 November 2021
We are reprinting Glen Ford’s 2019 article on Venezuela not to demonstrate that he was prescient on the issue of U.S.-Venezuela policies, but b
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, November 1, and supporters are demanding his freedom. Washington’s actions against Saab contradict both international and humanitarian laws. 
Lauren Smith
Miami Defenders of Twice US Kidnapped Venezuelan Ambassador, Alex Saab, Rally for his Release
26 October 2021
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab.
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
Peoples Dispatch Staff
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
08 July 2021
Venezuela signed an agreement with Cuba for the purchase of 12 million doses of Abdal after the country announced and celebrated the success o
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
Sara Flounders and Roger D. Harris 
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
23 June 2021
The case involves the kidnapping of a diplomat by the world’s sole superpower locked in an unequal struggle to destroy the formerly prosperous, oil
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
Vijay Prashad
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
18 November 2020
There is every indication that a Biden administration will maintain the punitive sanctions against Venezuela, suffocating the country during the pa
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
by the signatories
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
04 November 2020
These neo-colonial regimes are covertly and overtly facilitating the US Empire’s encirclement of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

More Stories


  • Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    Roberto Sirvent , Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    “A victory in Palestine is a victory for Africa and Africans”: An Interview with Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    13 Mar 2024
    Book Forum Editor, Roberto Sirvent, interviews Onyesonwu Chatoyer about her political organizing and work as a writer and editor.
  • Kathy Hochul at press conference
    Ashoka Jegroo
    New York's Top Democrats Turn New York City Into A Pro-Israel Police State
    13 Mar 2024
    New York Democrats are fueling the panic over a fictional crime wave to increase surveillance and police presence in NYC.
  • Libyan "rebels
    Essam Elkorghli
    The de-Africanization and re-Europeanization of Libya: The Political Economy of NATO’s Legacy in Libya
    13 Mar 2024
    Anti-Black racism in Libya is stoked by the west to justify intervention and maintain dominance over the nation. The path toward liberation is to reject Europe and embrace a political Pan-Africanism.
  • Maps of tectonic plates in around Africa
    Laith Marouf
    Palestine is in Africa, and Arabic Peoples are Africans
    13 Mar 2024
    Palestinian people and African/Black people share more than a common struggle. They share a history dating back thousands of years.
  • Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    BAP Backgrounder: Haiti Behind the Headlines
    13 Mar 2024
    The Black Alliance for Peace lays out the reality of the ongoing crisis in Haiti, rejecting the mainstream narrative of a crisis of "gangs".
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us