US Policy: Venezuela's Sanctions, Not Sharks, Are The Real 'Jaws'
The New Arab features a cartoon depicting Venezuela as a struggling swimmer circled by hungry sharks labeled 'US'. What they don't explicitly state is that the 'sharks' aren't just circling; they've been actively biting through an extensive campaign of US-led economic sanctions since 2006, significantly escalated under the Trump and Biden administrations. These sanctions, documented by
organizations like CEPR, have targeted Venezuela's oil sector and financial lifeline, strangling its economy and, according to a 2019 report by Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs, may have caused tens of thousands of deaths by limiting access to food and medicine. So, the 'Jaws' analogy is spot on, but for reasons the cartoon only subtly implies. The real menace isn't some abstract 'US influence,'
but a deliberate policy inflicting collective punishment, dressed up as 'democracy promotion' in Washington think tanks. One might wonder if the US would tolerate its economy being similarly 'stabilized' by external forces? How many 'last warnings' will a nation endure before its economic oxygen supply is completely cut off by policies critics liken to economic warfare?