The ceiling of the UNHRC main floor in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Jean Marc Ferré/file photo.
On Monday, Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva issued a forceful statement against the international sanctions imposed on Venezuela, stating that this “external pressure” constitutes a “serious threat to human rights” in the South American country, as reported by Telesur.
The statement, issued during the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, reinforces the Russian Federation’s historic position against the imposition of unilateral coercive measures promoted by the United States, which dozens of Western countries support.
“A serious threat to human rights in the country is external pressure in the form of illegitimate unilateral coercive measures,” the Russian mission stated during a dialogue with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. More than 1,000 different restrictions have already been imposed against Caracas, causing a direct humanitarian impact. Moscow also emphasized its opposition to what it described as the “politicization of the work” of the Human Rights Council.
This Russian stance does not emerge in a vacuum. It aligns with the persistent arguments of President Nicolás Maduro’s government and reflects a broader divide within multilateral organizations. In early April 2025, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil celebrated that “the majority of nations” that make up the Human Rights Council “recognize the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US government.” FM Gil, via Telegram, referred to the sanctions as “crime” and advocated for their “unconditional” abolition, accusing the Venezuelan opposition of promoting these measures “with hatred” after their “political failure.”
Only four countries currently have more sanctions imposed on them than Venezuela according to the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory. There are a total of 1,039 unilateral coercive measures applied against Venezuela, primarily by the United States. This arsenal of restrictions, which intensified significantly from 2017 to 2019 under the Donald Trump administration, has sought, according to Washington’s official strategy, to produce a change of government in Caracas.
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Meanwhile, recent research estimated that more than 560,000 additional deaths occur each year due to these types of measures, with the impact being greatest among children under five and older adults, according to data from 152 countries collected between 1971 and 2021.
Led by economists Francisco Rodríguez, Silvio Rendón, and Mark Weisbrot, the study used methods such as fixed effects, Granger causality tests, and instrumental variables based on UN votes to confirm that unilateral coercive measures, especially those by the US, increase infant mortality by up to 8.4% and adult mortality by 2.4%.
In turn, a survey by the Venezuelan polling firm Hinterlaces, released in May 2025, indicated that 91% of Venezuelans disapprove of the sanctions.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
