The Brain-Dead U.S. Sanctions Policies in Venezuela and Syria

In both Venezuela and Syria, the U.S. keeps waging economic wars that everyone in the vicinity knows to be useless and purely destructive.

The U.S. policy of trying to strangle the Venezuelan government into submission has suffered another setback:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for a “multi-polar” world rather than one dominated by the US, as he arrived in Brazil seeking to rebuild his nation’s alliances after years of isolation. 

In his first international trip in seven months, Maduro met with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on Monday ahead of a regional summit. 

His visit is the latest evidence of an ongoing thaw toward the Venezuelan government after leftists won elections in Brazil and Colombia last year.

There will be a temptation in Washington to criticize the Brazilian government for repairing its relations with Venezuela, but this should be resisted. Regional governments know better than anyone what the consequences of economic warfare are for Venezuela and for neighboring countries, and they reject the policy of isolation that produced them. Broad sanctions encourage Venezuelans to flee their country in search of survival. The refugee crisis that Venezuela’s neighbors have to manage and the border crisis that the U.S. is facing are fueled in no small part by the destructive sanctions imposed on Venezuela.

It speaks volumes about the political and moral bankruptcy of U.S. Venezuela policy that two of Venezuela’s most important neighbors have abandoned the pursuit of regime change in the last year and now seek to have normal relations with the de facto government in Caracas. There was a brief moment when the U.S. could claim that it had Venezuela’s neighbors on its side in its reckless attempt to force the overthrow of Maduro, but that moment quickly passed. Venezuela’s neighbors can recognize the reality staring them in the face. Why can’t the U.S.?