People waving Venezuelan flags alongside a banner reading: "Obama repeal the Executive Order now!" Photo: File photo.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The White House has announced that the president of the US. Joe Biden, has renewed Barack Obama’s time Executive Order 13692, initially issued on March 8, 2015, declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” When first implemented, this US decision opened the door for subsequent imperialist actions leading to the 900+ sanctions currently in force against the Venezuelan people, aimed at ousting the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
The White House press release that reports the renewal, published this Tuesday, March 5, is plagued with Washington’s distorted narrative about Venezuela and Chavismo, with wording very similar to a recent Deutsche Welle so-called “news piece” that the government of Venezuela denounced as part of a renewed smear campaign and imperialist tirade against the Bolivarian Revolution.
Through an official statement published this Wednesday, March 6, Venezuela expressed its strong condemnation of the renewal of the order that facilitates the imposition of unilateral coercive measures against millions of Venezuelans. In a statement released by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil via social media, he noted that this measure can be easily categorized as collective punishment, which violates international law.
#Comunicado Venezuela rechaza enérgicamente la renovación de la orden ejecutiva que desde el año 2015 se ha utilizado para justificar una sostenida campaña de agresión contra el pueblo venezolano, violando toda norma del derecho internacional, constituyéndose en un caso de… pic.twitter.com/IA1ON9GtxR
— Yvan Gil (@yvangil) March 6, 2024
Below, you can read the unofficial translation of the statement:
“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly rejects the renewal of the executive order that since 2015 has been used to justify a sustained campaign of aggression against the Venezuelan people, violating all norms of international law, constituting a case of collective punishment.
With this unnecessary, absurd, and hostile action, it is demonstrated that the decadent leadership of the United States is not capable of designing a coherent foreign policy that is not based on coercion, blackmail, or disrespect. Having had the opportunity to correct past errors and injustices that have even affected its own interests, the White House chooses to continue applying its economic terrorism through its more than 930 measures against our country.
The United States is today hostage to its own policies of aggression. The migration crisis about which so many political operators express concern is nothing more than a direct and immediate consequence of their coercive measures and blockades. On the other hand, nothing else can be expected from a government that normalizes and trivializes the genocide against the Palestinian people or that is indifferent to the progressive loss of civil rights of its minorities.
The Venezuelan people have not bowed down to these attacks nor will they ever do so. Its morals, conscience, and perseverance are the solid foundation on which it continues to build victories. “No matter what the United States does, Venezuela is a country determined to be free and will prevail.”
International reactions
The Executive Secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), Jorge Arreaza, also reiterated this Wednesday the organization’s rejection and condemnation of the imposition of illegal sanctions against Venezuela by the US government and their imperialist allies.
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“ALBA-TCP has expressed on countless occasions its absolute rejection of the illegal imposition of unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela,” Arreaza wrote via social media, “which affect not only the Venezuelan people, but the economies and peoples of the whole region. This renewal of the 2015 executive order of the US government against Venezuela constitutes a continued violation of international law with criminal effects on the population, which ALBA-TCP strongly condemns.”
The Cuban government also expressed their condemnation of the extension of the Executive Order. “We reject the extension of the Executive Order of the US government that has served to apply unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, under the unfounded pretext of being a threat to national security and US foreign policy,” wrote the Cuban minister for foreign affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, via social media.
Foreign Minister Gil also shared a message from the government of Nicaragua expressing their solidarity, published on social media. The statement reads that with these actions, the US “only shows more and more of its own fragility, in the face of the growing courage of the people who are dignified in the immortal demands of respect and justice, for all our heroes.”
Minister Gil further highlighted Venezuela’s solidarity with the Nicaraguan people, who are also victims of similar illegal sanctions. “From Venezuela, we stand in solidarity with the Nicaraguan people who also face collective punishment for having chosen to be independent and free,” Gil added. “Our people are worthy, and together we will win!”
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/AU
