Peace Activists Pressure McGovern's Office to Take a Stand on US Policy in Venezuela
April 13, 2021 4 Minutes
“Our policy towards Venezuela, or any other country, ought not to be motivated by greed.”
– Congressman Jim McGovern
By Celina della Croce and Michael Kowalchuk
On Wednesday, March 24th, peace activists gathered outside Representative Jim McGovern’s Northampton district office to protest US policy towards Venezuela. Though the US alleges that its series of sanctions seek to target the Venezuelan government, in reality they are an assault on Venezuelan sovereignty, a war crime, and a crime against humanity as defined by international law.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the US sanctions on Venezuela serve as a form of “collective punishment” of the Venezuelan people. Hector Figeralla, an activist from McGovern’s district, says, “The sanctions imposed on the people of Venezuela are illegal under international law and also immoral, especially during a global pandemic which makes pandemic response extremely difficult due to economic restraints. My father and uncle died in Venezuela due to lack of medicines caused by the sanctions; they need to end.”
The March 24th date was chosen to honor the legacy of Archbishop Óscar Romero, a Catholic leader and human rights activist admired by McGovern who was assassinated on this day in 1980. Drawing the connection between the struggle for human rights then and now, and the role of the US in both, activists called on McGovern to defend human rights, honor international law, and recognize Venezuelan sovereignty by:
1) calling to lift all sanctions;
2) rejecting U.S. recognition of Juan Guaido as “Interim President”; and
3) calling for CITGO ownership and assets to be returned to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
The US has been pursuing a regime change policy in Venezuela since the election of President Hugo Chávez in 1998, and now with President Nicolás Maduro. US economic sanctions are a core component of US regime change policy in Venezuela, Syria, Iran, and other countries. The logic behind economic sanctions is to make life so difficult for average people – by limiting or cutting off their access to money, food, medicine, and other necessary goods – that the people of Venezuela will rebel against their own democratically elected government, which Washington doesn’t support.
More:
https://theshoestring.org/2021/04/13/peace-activists-pressure-mcgoverns-office-to-take-a-stand-on-us-policy-in-venezuela/