Suchergebnisse

Utilizing the case study of Venezuela, this paper will explore the negative unintended consequences of the US-led regime sanctions on the reproduction of state sponsored repression, human rights violations and violence within the targeted nation by exacerbating the declining economic and living conditions of their citizenry. Since the end of World War II, economic sanctions have become the US's default foreign policy tool, perceived to be a more diplomatic and less violent approach of coercing compliance in the international community. Under this pretense the United States has become the world's number one sender, imposing economic sanctions on over 89 nation-states. But by the 1990's it became widely apparent that besides being largely ineffective, economic sanctions caused a host of unintended political problems within the target nation-state. Most notably were their devastating implications on the civilian population. In the case of Venezuela, the US-led regime of sanctions have exacerbated the economic decline of Venezuela to the point where crucial imports such as food, medicine and basic necessities faced shortages. This has led to the death of 40,000 Venezuelans and puts 300,000 more at risk in 2019.This has fueled massive civil unrest and its subsequent forms of state repression and violence. The failures of US-led economic sanctions ignited numerous scholarly inquiries aimed at better understanding economic sanctions and their use. Two bodies of scholarship have emerged: those who hope to improve the outcome of economic sanctions, focusing on how to increase their effectiveness, and those of their critics who choose to broaden their scope and analyze the negative consequences of economic sanctions. While the former are interested in making sanctions more painful and thus producing faster and more effective results, the latter is more interested in the painful side effects caused by sanctions on the target nation-state's political, economic and social integrity. This paper belongs among those in the latter category, which seeks to answer the question: What are the effects of intended and unintended consequences of the US-led regime of economic sanctions on the living conditions of a targeted nation-state, specifically as it pertains to state repression, human rights violations and violence?

Venezuela, due to economic and political sabotage, has been experiencing a humanitarian crisis since the late part of 2018. This oil-exporting nation was faced with economic decline after 9/11, the 2008 economic recession and again in 2014; as a result of oil prices tanking. Under Cesar Chavez's presidency the Venezuelan Bolivar faced destabilizing inflation rates surged in part by the 'economic war' against private enterprise and the bourgeoisie class, as well as a lack of diversification of exports and a dependency on imported goods. After Chavez's death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro took office and social unrest intensified. Since 2014: Over three million Venezuelans have fled the country. Shortages of basic goods have become a daily occurrence. With 90 percent of its of its citizens are living in poverty, 85 percent of medicines are scarce and 61.2 percent of Venezuelans report going to bed hungry. Claims of human rights violations, such as, arbitrary arrest and killings by government security forces. Venezuela been experiencing political turmoil, 2016-today. The US State Treasury has enacted sanctions against Venezuela's banking and financial sectors, their leading industry PDVSA, government officials, businesses and towards any nation aiding the Maduro government. Operación Libertad In the midst of these devastating crises the current administration promises to aid the Venezuelan people in their search for liberty and freedom from a 'usurper regime'; by placing their full support behind the leader of the opposition and president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó. The US has initiated an international pressure campaign to force Maduro's resignation. And is using humanitarian aid warfare tactics to influence the minds and hearts of desperate Venezuelans. Administration officials have purposely worsen the living conditions of Venezuelan citizens in order to invoke regime change. The American intervention in Venezuela is an opportunist scheme meant to exploit the current crises in order to further a neoliberal capitalist agenda and deliver president Trump an international political win before the 2020 elections. The US once again is following traditional policies and practices of the Monroe Doctrine to intervene Latin American affairs. Support is provided with the examples of Guatemala (1954), Dominican Republic (1965), Chile (1973) and Argentina (1975-76) and Venezuela's 2002 coup attempt.