Wednesday, 15 July 2020_Venezuela’s crude output has fallen to the lowest level in nearly eight decades as US imposed sanctions on the country. This report explores the human cost of Washington's policies in Venezuela.
It seems the United States is eager to turn up the pressure on Venezuela and impose as many economic sanctions as possible to limit the country's ability to export and import goods at a time when the country needs it the most.
Worse still Washington's ally, the United Kingdom appears almost as committed in their efforts to deny the Venezuelan public funds needed to fight covid-19 health pandemic with a recent high court ruling declaring the bank of England should not transfer 820 MILLION pounds worth of gold to the elected Venezuelan government.
Yet according to Carolina Graterol, a British-Venezulan journalist living in London, both governments can only get away with these actions because the vast majority of the British and the American public have no real understanding of what sanctions are and the damage they cause.
The Washington DC-based think tank the Centre for Economic Policy and Research found that as many as 40,000 people have died in Venezuela as a result of US-led sanctions that made it harder for ordinary citizens to access food, medicine and medical equipment and it warned the situation had probably worsened since the imposition of tougher sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil industry.
Yet for Carolina the human cost of Washington's policies was personal. Carolina is a journalist and a campaigner determined to educate the western public about the damage that economic sanctions do not only on countries but on families too. She is hoping if she is successful then her sister's death and her family's pain will not be in vain.
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