Memorandum of the WFTU addressed to International Organizations on Sanctions and the blockade against the Bolivarian Rep. of Venezuela
MEMORANDUM OF THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS (WFTU) ADDRESSED TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON SANCTIONS AND THE BLOCKADE AGAINST THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA
Dear all,
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which represents 105 million workers in 133 countries on the five continents, has prepared and now files before any international institution or national authority to which it corresponds, this memorandum regarding unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) against the Venezuelan economy and people.
The WFTU, as the most historic world trade union organization, has repeatedly expressed its internationalist solidarity with the brother people of Venezuela, while its affiliated entities are in the first line of demands for the right of the working people, of the simple people of the country, to decide for themselves, without foreign interference, on their present and future.
We hereby reject the sanctions imposed in recent years against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by the USA, the EU, the Lima Group and their allied countries. For the WFTU, these measures are aimed at destabilizing in economic and political terms the Venezuelan economy and the legitimately elected government of Nicolás Maduro Moros; they also seek to plunder the country's natural resources and guarantee even greater profits for the monopoly groups whose interests they serve.
These sanctions constitute an inhuman blockade against the country's own people as well as a flagrant violation of popular sovereignty as established in the statutory documents and the founding values of the UN; Such measures, which target ordinary people and so blatantly disregard the value of human life, cannot but be characterized as crimes against humanity.
At the same time, the WFTU considers that these cases of coercive measures against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela are not at all isolated phenomena in the tactics of the peoples’ enemies, since such measures have also been taken against Syria, Iran, Russia, DPR of Korea and especially against Cuba, through the criminal blockade that has continued for more than 61 years and has cost the people and the economy of the island so much.
In that sense, it is the US governments themselves which, since August 2017, declared that they had all options open against Venezuela, including an eventual military operation. More recently, the USA, the EU and their allies once again undermined the will of the Venezuelan people by promoting their puppet, J. Guaidó, which constituted another direct and unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the country.
GENERAL EFFECTS OF THE SANCTIONS
The sanctions have many dimensions, since they provoke, among others:
· Interference of the country’s international trade, preventing it from having access to food, medicines and essential goods.
· Blocking of accounts, financial operations and transactions, thus preventing or hampering international payment transactions of the legitimate commitments of the Republic, as well as preventing collect operations from international clients of Venezuela.
· Freezing or withholding of legitimate financial resources of Venezuela in banks and other financial entities
· Delays in the management of buying and selling operations, affecting not only the Government and Venezuelan companies but also their foreign business partners.
At the same time, under the pretext of the hypocritical calls for democracy, sanctions have been imposed against individuals or companies identified as political or economic partners of the Venezuelan Government. The following stand out among these measures:
· Prohibition of entry into U.S. territory.
· Freezing and seizure of financial assets, accounts in the U.S. financial system and assets that such individuals may own in the United States.
· Prohibition of commercial or financial contact or relations with U.S. entities.
· Prohibition of individuals and entities of the U.S. financial sector to carry out operations with bonds of the sovereign debt of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and in general, with any financial instrument issued or belonging to the Venezuelan Government, such as the bonds of the PDVSA company.
· Prohibition of individuals and entities of the U.S. financial sector to carry out operations or transactions with the "Petro" crypto-coin, any crypto-currency or monetary instrument of this nature issued or endorsed by the Venezuelan Government.
FINANCIAL LOSSES SUFFERED BY VENEZUELA
Until 2020, the country has lost approximately $ 30 billion a year just due to the inability to sell oil, on the aftermath of the US financial persecution of PDVSA.
Between 2014 and 2019, Venezuela experienced the sharpest drop in external income in its history. In six years, it lost 99% of the volume of foreign exchange earnings. Of every 100 dollars or euros that the country obtained from the sale of oil in 2014, in September 2020 it obtained less than 1.
The abrupt fall in foreign income has severely affected all the economy’s indicators: the country's reserves, the trade balance, the domestic product, the price index, monetary liquidity, and interest rates. It has caused serious consequences for the economy: industry, commerce, agricultural production.
THE OPEN CALL OF THE WFTU
Given this extreme situation for the very survival of the people, the World Federation of Trade Unions has no illusions: as in any crisis, those who suffer the consequences, those who lose their jobs, those who are left without medical care, education and social security, those who are forced to live with less and less are the simple workers; they are the most exposed to the orchestrated offensives and plots of monopolistic interests.
In this sense, the WFTU makes an open call to all international organizations, especially those in which it has a presence and the right to vote, to denounce these sanctions that violate any notion of international law as well as any progressive principle for the peoples as implemented in international relations between states during the last century. Therefore, we urge each international organization to denounce these unilateral coercive actions that constitute unacceptable interventions in the affairs of a sovereign state and to spread this appeal to all continents.
The WFTU Secretariat