The Vice Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, reported that the new personal sanctions imposed by the United States (US) against 16 Venezuelan public officials, increased the record of unilateral coercive measures against the country to 947.
“With these 16, the number of unilateral coercive measures is 947, it is already an official record, yesterday it was incorporated into the database of the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory (OVA),” he said this Friday during an interview on the VTV channel.
He added that these restrictions, when taken together, “are extending a failed, illegal and criminal policy,” such as the sanctions policy that the US government is implementing against Venezuela.
“The characteristics of personal sanctions is that they generate fear, a sort of cordon sanitaire around these people, but these people also represent public powers, that is, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ); this is something very serious that has implications that must be denounced internationally,” he said in reference to the aggression imposed on the head of the Judiciary, Caryslia Rodríguez.
“Using the president’s metaphor, this award is for having peacefully resolved the electoral controversy that arose on July 28,” he said.
In this regard, Castillo argued that the US response is to attack a public power, as well as to condition the recognition and functioning of the same to the effects of the representation of the Republic. “So the political identity of the Republic in the world is also affected,” he explained.
Ineffective sanctions
The director of the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory also expressed his agreement with the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, by describing the restrictions imposed on the country as “ridiculous” and “ineffective.”
“Venezuela has had almost 200 officials on a sanctions list for years, including some who have died and have not been removed; but for practical purposes they are ridiculous, ineffective and are just decorations from the point of view of defending the Constitution of the Republic,” he said.
He also characterized the new coercion as a sort of “vacuum effect” in line with the political discourse maintained by US officials. “We are in a different political moment, the US has failed in this policy and as much as it wants to disguise it with these sanctions, deep down it knows that Venezuelan democracy is much more solid today. These sanctions have no impact, none of these officials have an account in the US,” he specified.
