Fifty Venezuelans living abroad asked in a letter to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and other authorities, new sanctions and the continuity of criminal investigations into figures from the Maduro government. They stressed that these measures “benefit ordinary Venezuelans.”
In addition, they requested that the release of political prisoners and the holding of “free and fair” presidential elections be demanded. Also, that the United States government support the investigative work of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (CPI) on Venezuela.
The letter, dated April 21, 2022, is signed by more than 50 “decent and morally empowered” Venezuelan citizens who reside in the United States and Spain, in addition to other European countries, and who attack those who campaign in favor of a withdrawal of the sanctions alleging that they harm the people.
“Those who are dedicated to lobbying for the lifting of these sanctions rather seek to protect the economic interests of these criminals and not the interests of Venezuelans,” they stressed.
In addition to President Biden, the recipients of the letter are James Story, United States Ambassador to Venezuela; Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State; Ron DeSantis; governor of Florida, and representatives and senators of the United States Congress.
The crisis does not come from the sanctions once morest Maduro
The signatories of the letter clarify to the recipients that the genesis of the “serious economic and structural crisis” that Venezuela is suffering is “unrelated to and prior to the sanctions” imposed by the United States on figures from the Chavista government.
In his opinion, the crisis that has meant for Venezuelans “unspeakable hardships and humiliations under what can be defined as a continued genocide” and has caused the exodus of millions of people, is due in the first place to economic and monetary policies ” erroneous” implemented “under the advice” of Cuba.
Also to the systematic destruction of the country’s productive apparatus and the business sector, to the dismantling of the Rule of Law and the collapse of Legal Security. In addition to corruption unprecedented in Republican history, says the letter, which exposes each of those aspects in detail.
The signatories emphasize that the sanctions of the United States, far from being the cause of the crisis, “rather put a brake on the suffering of the Venezuelan people.” They considered that they have helped “close the financing of the regime to criminal activities.”
Maduro government alliances
They also underline that the government of Nicolás Maduro is an “ally” of Russia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua and China, and of the drug cartels of Colombia, Bolivia and Mexico, and of “terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, the ELN and the FARC”.
“This international criminal alliance represents a National Security risk for the United States without a doubt,” they added.
They also assert that the sanctions imposed by the United States “have at no time involved the generation of any damage to the people of Venezuela.”
“There have been sanctions with direct effects on the regime and its officials who violate human rights (money launderers and drug traffickers), and trade in food, medicine and basic necessities has been exempted from sanctions.”
No more dialogue and yes free elections
According to the letter, “the sanctions have benefited ordinary Venezuelans, by coercing in some way the corrupt officials of the Maduro regime, to invest part of the stolen money within the national economy itself, for fear of seeing their capital frozen in your foreign bank accounts.
They also charge once morest the idea that a dialogue between the opposition and the government “will solve the problems of a country that is under tyranny.” They remember the unsuccessful attempts that have already been made.
regarding the elections
In electoral matters they affirm that “during all these years the elections carried out in Venezuela have been fraudulent and without the slightest guarantees of transparency.” They list the guarantees that must be demanded for a fair electoral process with the participation of Venezuelans from the diaspora.
“The people of Venezuela do not want to submit to yet another mockery. Venezuela demands Freedom and true Democracy”, say the signatories led by Ernesto Ackerman, from the organization Independent Venezuelan American Citizens and a member of the Republican Party of the United States.
On the list are merchants, businessmen, lawyers and other professionals, journalists, community leaders and a former senator, Pablo Medina Carrasco.