Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil. Photo: RedRadioVE/file photo.
This Tuesday, February 28, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil, during his speech at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN), said that blockades represent the “continuity of neocolonialism, and now they are implemented as political and economic weapons by the hegemonic countries against the peoples of the south.”
The top Venezuelan diplomat reiterated that the 928 coercive measures issued against Venezuela are crimes against humanity. In the same way, he reviewed the most serious of the illegal coercive economic measures—euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”—that the Venezuelan population has had to face in recent years.
“The country has stopped receiving more than $232 billion in the last nine years,” said the Venezuelan foreign minister during his speech.
— VTV CANAL 8 (@VTVcanal8) February 28, 2023
During the course of his presentation at the 52nd Ordinary Session of the UN Human Rights Council, which is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, Gil noted how the US and its vassals wield the weapon of sanctions against “anyone who does not agree with their perverse expansionist intentions, accompanied by shameful media campaigns full of falsehoods to criminalize governments, accuse authorities, and organize failed assassinations and coups.”
Gil recalled that the UN has repeatedly condemned the “imposition of bloody unilateral coercive measures and has declared itself alarmed by its disproportionate human costs and its negative effects on the population.”
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Alex Saab case
Regarding the kidnapping and extradition of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, Gil described his case as a flagrant violation of international law: “today, unjustly detained in the United States, his current trial in a US court is plagued by serious vices and aberrational distortions.”
For this reason, Gil urged the UN to pronounce the procedures of the case as constituting an “ignominious” act violating human rights and the Vienna Convention.
Post-pandemic Venezuela
Finally, the Venezuelan diplomat highlighted the work undertaken by the Venezuelan government against COVID-19 and how, despite the illegal sanctions imposed against his country, they have managed to vaccinate 100% of the target population and overcome the onslaught of the virus. This was accomplished despite the fact that the same illegal measures against the country continue to block access to medical supplies and medical equipment.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
