During her visit to Caracas, United Nations Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan confirmed that the US sanctions against the Venezuelan government, applied in the context of the political struggle that both countries have been waging for a few years, are the country’s hardships and calamities have worsened. Douhan spent 12 days in Venezuela, holding talks about the Venezuelan situation with President Nicolás Maduro and 50 other political leaders. Douhan’s statements have been well received by Maduro. “Today, the UN Rapporteur, Alena Douhan, has called on the governments of the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions against Venezuela because they have exacerbated a massive humanitarian crisis against the people.”
“Before the blockade,” said Douhan, “Venezuela used 76% of its oil revenues to invest in social programs and now it can’t even invest 1%.” The UN Rapporteur added that the country “cannot buy vaccines because it has no right to use their money,” referring to assets frozen by the Bank of England and other international assets confiscated after a questioning drawn presidential election in 2018 that Maduro was re-elected. .
Since 2014, Maduro’s economic strategy, inherited from the time of Hugo Chávez, was shipwrecked during a currency crisis that resulted in material damage to the country’s then-large monetary reserves. As the economy deteriorated, Maduro reinforced his revolutionary tone against the private sector. For example, he introduced draconian controls on the marketing of products causing severe shortages and, in the long run, along with corruption and monetary and fiscal disorder, hyperinflation.
The UN Special Rapporteur’s statements were welcomed by Chavismo, who have made the “blockade” their current password. But they also caused outrage in the political sectors of the opposition, which blames the current Venezuelan shipwreck for the wastage and corruption in effect in Chavismo.
The official’s words have been commented on and magnified by the official media in their opinion spaces, noting in particular the tremendous current difficulties Caracas has in commercializing oil and obtaining fuel in international markets, one of the arguments helping Chavismo to the measures passed against the country by Donald Trump’s US administration in the past.
The civil sectors of the opposition posted on social networks a label that has become a trend stating that #LaCrisisFuePrimero. The opposition – including human rights organizations, civil activists and lawyers, political leaders and parties – argue that the complaints about the existence of a humanitarian crisis in the country are seven years old and have long been denied by Chavismo.
Today, the Special Rapporteur on Coercive Measures presented her report on Venezuela. We regret that a United Nations official lends himself to the propaganda and narrative that relieves the regime of its responsibility in the humanitarian emergency and human rights violations, ”said Miguel Pizarro, UN Commissioner for Juan Guaidó and member of the Primero Justicia. party.