INTERNATIONAL ALERT! The Total Blockade Imposed by the United States against the Venezuelan People is a Crime against Humanity.
The Network in Defense of Humanity categorically rejects the Executive Order signed on August 5, 2019 by U.S. President Donald Trump, which decrees an economic, financial and commercial blockade against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
This new decision, in violation of international law, reinforces the coercive, unilateral and illegal aggression already imposed several years ago. It systematically and deliberately affects the entire Venezuelan population, both civilian and military, and because of its consequences – without a doubt they constitute a “crimes against humanity”.
The US government justifies its decisions and actions by ignoring the legitimacy of President Nicolás Maduro, who obtained 67% of the votes in an absolutely free and transparent electoral process held on May 20, 2018, in which 18 organizations and 5 candidates representing the diversity of the national political spectrum participated.
Venezuela has been under siege for twenty years, the last four of which have been under a blatant and bloody blockade. This criminal siege was formally established in 2015, when the Bolivarian Republic was declared “an unusual and extraordinary threat” by the government of Barack Obama.
We warn of the great impact of this new unilateral measure will have as it seeks to destroy the economic, social, political, civil and cultural rights of the Venezuelan people. The financial and commercial scope of the embargoes on state assets, together with the restrictions on the free circulation of goods and services, violate the rights of the people to self-determination and directly harms people’s daily lives and dignity.
The interventionist plan against Venezuela represents a threat against the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace made within the framework of the II Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in 2014. The government of the United States, in its eagerness to retake hemispheric control, has raised a new version of the Condor Plan. In the imperial desperation for domination, they intend to stop and criminalize any alternative proposal to capitalism.
The U.S. government and its allies have dusted off the anachronistic Monroe Doctrine. This is the case of the complete application of the Helms-Burton Law against the independent and sovereign Republic of Cuba, an instrument that reinforces the U.S. embargo on the worthy people of José Martí.
“Fortunately, a handful of free men have often been seen defeating powerful empires,” said Liberator Simón Bolívar in 1818, and this is demonstrated in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean. We are sure that once again the libertarian spirit of the Venezuelan people, just as it was two hundred years ago, will defend its historical legacy with truthful words of justice and freedom.
We call upon the peoples of the world to forcefully reject any type of action that threatens the peace and stability of humanity. Likewise, we ask the United Nations, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council, to demand that the government of the United States, immediately repeal the inhumane and gross Executive Order of August 5.
Network in Defense of Humanity, August 8, 2019.