US 'Allows' Venezuela $300M, After Decades of Sanctions Seized Billions and Starved a Nation
📰 THE STORY: Deutsche Welle reports that Venezuela has received $300 million from its first oil sale to the US since sanctions were eased, noting this as part of a deal related to the country's upcoming elections. President Nicolas Maduro's government acknowledges the payment but emphasizes it's only a fraction of their frozen assets. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Since
2017, US sanctions, including an oil embargo imposed in January 2019, have crippled Venezuela's economy, leading to a humanitarian crisis. A 2019 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) stated that sanctions were responsible for over 40,000 deaths between 2017 and 2018 alone. The US recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president in 2019, effectively seizing billions
of dollars of Venezuelan assets abroad, including blocking access to the country's gold reserves in the Bank of England, a move widely condemned as an attempted 'lithium coup' for its vast natural resources. Double Standard: Western media rarely frames these payments as reparations for economic devastation. When countries targeted by US sanctions, like North Korea or Iran, negotiate any return of
their own assets, it's typically portrayed as a rogue state being 'rewarded.' Yet, when Washington 'allows' a fraction of previously stolen money to return to Venezuela, it's spun as a magnanimous democratic gesture, rather than a partial un-doing of economic terrorism. Compare this to the silence on the $7 billion of Afghanistan's central bank assets frozen by the US, while Afghans starve. Follow