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

US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba
Benjamin Norton
02 Mar 2022
🖨️ Print Article
US sanctions on Russia over Ukraine also target Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at the ALBA summit in La Habana in December 2021 (Photo credit: Cuba's presidential office)

The U.S. and Western powers talk about a "Troika of Tyranny" in Latin America because the nations in that region recognize the dangers of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. But any tyranny taking place is forced upon them by the U.S. and its NATO allies.

This article was originally published in Multipolarista.

President Joe Biden’s top Latin America advisor has admitted that US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine intentionally seek to hurt Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well.

The United States imposed a series of harsh sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on February 21, and its subsequent military intervention in Ukraine on February 24.

Juan S. González, Biden’s special assistant for Latin America and the US National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, made it clear that these coercive measures against Russia are also aimed at damaging the economies of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have socialist governments that Washington has long tried to overthrow. All three currently suffer under unilateral US sanctions, which are illegal according to international law.

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, referred to these three Latin American nations as the so-called “Troika of Tyranny.”

Biden’s advisor González did an exclusive interview with Voz de América, the Spanish-language arm of the US government’s propaganda outlet Voice of America, on February 25.

Voz de América published his comments in a report titled “US sanctions on Russia will impact Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, White House estimates.”

“The sanctions against Russia are so robust that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia, and that is by design,” González explained.

“So Venezuela is going to start feeling that pressure. Nicaragua is going to feel that pressure, along with Cuba,” he added.

Biden’s Latin America advisor noted that Washington has imposed sanctions on 13 top financial institutions in Russia, including some of the largest in the country. He proudly said that these coercive measures will, “by design,” harm other countries that do a lot of trade with the Eurasian power.

González also used his interview with the US-funded Voz de América to reiterate Washington’s call for regime change against these three socialist governments in Latin America.

His comments were reported by the independent Bolivia-based news website Kawsachun News.

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba stand with Russia against US and NATO

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba have stood with Russia against NATO expansion and Western military encirclement.

President Nicolás Maduro said that Venezuela “laments the mockery and breaking of the Minsk agreements by NATO, promoted by the United States of America.”

Maduro stressed that Washington and NATO bear responsibility for the conflict, and “have generated strong threats against the Russian Federation.”
 

Cuba blamed Washington for the crisis as well. Its Foreign Ministry stated, “The U.S. determination to continue NATO’s progressive expansion towards the Russian Federation borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope, which could have been avoided.”

Denouncing Western governments for sending weapons to Ukraine, Cuba declared, “History will hold the United States accountable for the consequences of an increasingly offensive military doctrine outside NATO’s borders, which threatens international peace, security and stability.”

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega condemned Washington for sponsoring a 2014  coup in Ukraine, and joined Russia in recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, traveled to Nicaragua to meet with top officials from the Sandinista government, and thanked them for their support against NATO expansion and US threats.

Multipolarista is an independent news outlet documenting the transition to a multipolar world. Multipolarista is edited by journalist Benjamin Norton.

Sanctions
Venezuela
Cuba
Nicaragua
Russia

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


Related Stories

x
Orinoco Tribune
Venezuela Rejects CIA Award Rumors While President Maduro’s Son Sparks Backlash Over Comments Suggesting to Resume Diplomatic Ties with ‘Israel’
21 January 2026
Venezuela's official stance remains one of principled anti-imperialism.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Breaking the Silence Revisited: Gaza, Venezuela, and the Enduring Relevance of Dr. King’s Critique of Empire
14 January 2026
The annual ritual of sanitizing Martin Luther King Jr.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
The Bolivarian Legacy, from Hugo Chávez to Nicolás Maduro
14 January 2026
Attorney Dan Kovalik is an attorney representing Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Vijay Prashad , Carlos Ron
The Current Situation in Venezuela: A Government in Charge, a People Resilient
14 January 2026
While the U.S.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Venezuela 2026: Black Agenda Report Special Issue
07 January 2026
Black Agenda Report Special Issue on Venezuela.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Venezuela, Even More Than Palestine, Is the Linchpin of a Consistent Radical Left in The Era of Global Neofascism Led by the U.S.
07 January 2026
Solidarity with Palestine tests morality, but solidarity with Venezuela tests politics. The recent U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: National Liberation: Categorical Imperative for the Peoples of Our Americas, Manuel Maldonado-Denis, 1982
07 January 2026
“The national independence struggles of the peoples of Our America have simultaneously been anti-imperialist struggles from Tupac Ama
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
STOP the killers!
07 January 2026
Burlap bags stuffed with tuna and blue marlin.Catch of a lifetime! Juan’s already counting the
The Editors
Black Agenda Report Venezuela Reading List
07 January 2026
Black Agenda Report contributors have focused analysis, reporting and interviews on Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution for many years.
Black Alliance For Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns U.S. Intervention in Venezuela and Stands with the Venezuelan People in Their Resistance to U.S. Imperialist War
07 January 2026
The Black Alliance for Peace takes a clear anti-imperialist stance on U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 23, 2026
    23 Jan 2026
    In this week’s segment, we cover state repression and regime change efforts. While the corporate media parroted state narratives about a popular uprising in Iran, all evidence indicates that recent…
  • ICE Protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    ICE Domestic Repression in Minnesota
    23 Jan 2026
    Mnar Adley is the founder and director of MintPress News, an independent media outlet. She joins us from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Donald Trump's ICE enforcement is used as domestic police…
  • Iran
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. and Israel Attempt Regime Change Against Iran
    23 Jan 2026
    Nina Farnia is an assistant professor at Albany Law School in New York. She is a legal historian, focusing on the role of modern imperialism in U.S. law and politics, and a member of the Anti-…
  • Tobi Raji
    RFK-backed Infant Vaccine Study in Africa to Proceed Despite Backlash, U.S. Says
    21 Jan 2026
    U.S. funding for a study on the timing of hepatitis B vaccine doses in infants in Guinea-Bissau violates accepted standards of medical ethics.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Racist, Imperialist U.S. Vassal Denmark Now Cries Over Greenland
    21 Jan 2026
    Donald Trump and other U.S. presidents are gangsters who will sometimes steal from their own crew. The Greenland heist is but the latest example, as the Denmark colonizers cry that they were robbed…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us