This is a summary of my more
detailed article, written in Spanish, on the paper written by Mark Weisbrot and
Jeffrey Sachs on Venezuela and which appears in my blog immediately below this one.
Weisbrot
and Sachs blame the chemo, not the cancer
In a document published by the Center
for Economic and Policy Research Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, with the cooperation
of Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodriguez, argue that the Venezuelan economic
and social tragedy has been caused by the sanctions imposed to the Nicolas Maduro
dictatorship by the United States government, see: http://cepr.net/publications/reports/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela.
Weisbrot is a known U.S. spokesperson for the
Chavez, Maduro dictatorships. He was Oliver Stone’s adviser for a documentary
eulogizing Chavez for which Stone and staff received a substantial amount of
money and he has published numerous papers in defense of the Venezuelan narco-regime.
He is far from being an impartial analyst. Sachs, who has a better reputation,
is in favor of a dialogue and negotiation with the Maduro regime and recently
wrote an article to that effect, together with Francisco Rodriguez, above
mentioned, see: http://jeffsachs.org/2019/02/how-to-avoid-a-war-in-venezuela/.
He belongs to the group of appeasers who pretend that Venezuela forgets about the
300,000 + deaths that have taken place during the last 20 years of dictatorship.
What could we think about a
medical doctor who blamed chemo for the death of the patient, not cancer? This
is precisely what Weisbrot and Sachs would make us believe. The summary of
their report reads:
Economic Sanctions as
Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela
April 2019, Mark Weisbrot
and Jeffrey Sachs
This paper looks at some
of the most important impacts of the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by
the US government since August of 2017. It finds that most of the impact of
these sanctions has not been on the government but on the civilian population.
The sanctions reduced the
public’s caloric intake, increased disease and mortality (for both adults and
infants), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a
result of the worsening economic depression and hyperinflation. They
exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis and made it nearly impossible to
stabilize the economy, contributing further to excess deaths. All of these
impacts disproportionately harmed the poorest and most vulnerable Venezuelans.
Even more severe and
destructive than the broad economic sanctions of August 2017 were the sanctions
imposed by executive order on January 28, 2019 and subsequent executive orders
this year; and the recognition of a parallel government, which as shown below,
created a whole new set of financial and trade sanctions that are even more
constricting than the executive orders themselves.
We find that the
sanctions have inflicted, and increasingly inflict, very serious harm to human
life and health, including an estimated more than 40,000 deaths from 2017 to
2018; and that these sanctions would fit the definition of collective
punishment of the civilian population as described in both the Geneva and Hague
international conventions, to which the US is a signatory. They are also
illegal under international law and treaties that the US has signed, and would
appear to violate US law as well.
A rebuttal by Ricardo Hausmann
and Frank Muci pretty much debunks Weisbrot and Sachs piece, see: https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/dont-blame-washington-venezuelas-oil-woes-rebuttal.
I would like to add the following comments:
Weisbrot and Sachs knowingly
deform the truth
It is perverse to say that the U.S.
sanctions are the direct cause of the Venezuelan social and economic tragedy.
It would be equivalent to say that allergic reactions to vaccination or that
Chemo are the reason, not the infectious disease/ cancer, for the patients deaths. This
is perverse because it contains a portion of truth, utilized to
present a distorted view of the real situation. The authors fall hostage to ideology.
In blaming the U.S. (and sanctions by other countries) against the Venezuelan regime Weisbrot and Sachs
ignore the effect of the disastrous populist policies that started in 1999 and
have continued until today, of the expropriations and confiscations of private
property for political and personal gain, of the corruption of ministers, military
officers, relatives, friends and contractors for the government, of the exchange
controls or the greed, ignorance and inefficiency of PDVSA’s management
during these years. Sanctions only appeared in 2017, when violent deaths in
Venezuela already amounted to an average of some 20,000 per year and oil production had collapsed to little
more than 2 million barrels per day from the more than 3 million barrels per
day that existed in 1999.
Long before sanctions existed the
regime had incurred in debts of over $100 billion, including $60 billion in
Chinese loans and $45 billion in bond emissions carrying exorbitant interest
rates that have benefited the friends of the regime, including some who today blame the
U.S. sanctions.
Long before sanctions existed hundreds
of private companies had been taken over, agriculture had been destroyed and ideological
allies of Chavez and Maduro, including Morales, Ortega, Correa, Mujica, the Petro
Caribe mercenaries, FARC and other terrorist groups in the planet had received
some $75-100 billion in handouts from the regime.
Long before the sanctions
Venezuela already occupied the last places in most international economic and
social indices: corruption, competitiveness, misery index and economic
performance.
Weisbrot and Sachs argue that the
sanctions are to blame for the collapse of oil production when, in fact, this
collapse was already significant before 2017. As Hausmann and Muci show the oil production that collapsed was that directly managed by PDVSA since foreign contractors
had no major problems keeping theirs stable. After Maduro’s arrival in power
PDVSA has increased its rate of collapse due to the presence of ignorant
managers such as PDVSA’s president Manuel Quevedo and to the complete takeover
of the company by the Armed Forces.
What is behind this paper by
Weisbrot and Sachs, assisted by Rodriguez: A genuine interest in the welfare of
the Venezuelan people, Idealism, Compassion, Dishonest manipulation, Ideological
astigmatism, Personal agendas Intellectual
dishonesty?
The readers will decide.
3 comentarios:
This is the Cuban strategy - blame the embargo. Marxists are so hopelessly delusional that they blindly defend a horrible regime that has destroyed a country. Chavez got into power by stoking anti-gringo sentiments and by making sweeping promises to the poor of massive handouts and freebies. When the loot he stole by expropriation dried up (as he had basically stolen everything he could) and then the high oil prices failed, his revolution was doomed. Socialists are basically thieves who prosper as long as there is something to steal.
1+1= 2
-úico país conquistado y colonizado por uno más pequeño y más pobre y con la venia de sus "gobernantes"
-Unico país que clama por que USA intervenga y USA no asume el problema
-Con sanciones no va la cosa. Ese argumento lo iban a usar. Mucho habían tardado.
Incluso me atrevo a especular que si mientras no se produzca la inevitable intervención,se pueden concatenar en el imaginario venezolano dos resentimientos explosivos: este que comienzan a explotar los propagandistas chavistas y el que puede surgir por verse la población ignorada por USA en su clamor por intervención.
Así que para que seguir esperando cuando todas las variables geopolíticas, económicas, sociales y psicosociales indican que esa intervención debe producirse. No le aumenten los costos
Aunque escribo en inglés, me cuesta más ordenar las ideas y expresarlas en ese idioma. Y cómo sé que este sitio es monitoreado y leído, espero esto sea leído también.
Oil production is down to 600,000 barrels a day and only when the electricity is on. Don't know where these leftist syncophants got their figures. Some Marxist idiot the other day claimed that there were more Colombians in Venezuela than Venezuelans in Colombia, ignoring the fact that Maduro ran thousands them out a few years back and the rest have left by now to keep from starving. Endless delusion and blind defense of that ridiculous, outdated, failed ideology. Chomsky would be proud. A beautiful utopia fantasy tale spun by western intellectuals with no grasp of reality and instituted by violent power-hungry megalomaniacs who manipulate hate to win.
May they get their glass coffin soon! Venezuela has broken all of Zimbabwe's records for the worst economy in history.
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