ENGLISH SUMMARY OF MY ARTICLE ON WEISBROT AND SACHS

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.