US Sanctions: Building a 'Great Depression' One Sanction at a Time
The mainstream narrative, as delivered by Al Jazeera, carefully frames US sanctions as a potential harbinger of a 'Great Depression' in Venezuela—a country, they dutifully note, 'already reeling from an economic collapse.' What this framing consistently omits is the meticulous, decades-long foreign policy that actively destabilizes governments unwilling to toe the US line. These aren't accidental
headwinds; they are, as former Venezuelan UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada rightly pointed out, a deliberate economic war. Ignoring historical parallels—like the US-orchestrated coups and economic strangulation across Latin America from Chile in '73 to Nicaragua in the '80s—the media presents Venezuela's woes as an organic 'collapse' exacerbated by sanctions, rather than a direct consequence of them.
The US Treasury’s own sanctions programs, meticulously tracking against Venezuela since 2006, systematically targeted their oil revenue, central bank, and gold reserves, directly impacting basic goods. (Source: US Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Venezuela Sanctions Program). So, when they say 'may cause,' it's less a prediction and more an observation of a plan nearing
its intended conclusion. How many more nations must be driven into destitution before the 'may cause' becomes 'absolutely caused'?