The Venezuelan government continued to lash out against the United States after the latter announced travel bans for a number of undisclosed Venezuelan officials and their families. The bans stem from the human rights violations that have taken place in the country since 2014. The government assured today that it would take “all necessary actions” to defend itself from what it calls a “violation of international rights”. In a communique released today, the Venezuelan government said:
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro Moros categorically reject the statement from the United States Department of State, in which, through a violation of human rights, violates international law. The coercive, unilateral measures mentioned in the document contravene the will of all of the governments and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean…
The same document calls the sanctions part of “continued aggression” by the United States against Venezuela, and quotes both Hugo Chavez and Simon Bolivar as it grieves what it considers to be an attack on the sovereignty and independence of Venezuela. People Forced to Line Up in Underground Parking Lot La Patilla journalists visited the Bicentenario in Plaza Venezuela, Caracas today to check on the long lines that usually form outside the establishment. To their surprise, they found no lines outside the supermarket. In the video below, the journalists are informed by a National Guard soldier guarding a gate into the supermarket that to enter it, they still need to line up – in an underground parking lot. The video can be seen below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTdtlTifHs0 The video appears to show possibly up to hundreds of people lining up in an underground parking lot to enter the store. Chairs are strewn about the lot. It’s unclear why the line was forced out of view, although La Patilla thinks that it’s a way to hide it from view. The line outside the supermarket was observed by foreign dignitaries visiting Venezuela last week: https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/pSjbxdq.jpg Giordani: Venezuela is Almost “a Laughing Stock” The former Vice-President of Planning, Jorge Giordani, said that Venezuela was becoming a “laughing stock” in Latin America, and that the government’s handling of the economic crisis was ineffective. Giordani said:
To tell you the truth, we’re almost the laughing stock of Latin America. If the situation is bad — if the thermometer reads 40 degrees, some will say that the problem is that the thermometer is broken. If it shows 40 degrees it’s because it’s measuring 40 degrees (…) We have to recognize the crisis, comrades!
Giordani served for a number years under Chavez: from 1999 to 2002, then from 2003 to 2008, and finally as Vice-President of Planing from 2009 to 2014. He was removed from his post last year, and released a scathing letter criticising the tenure of Maduro as president. Gov’t Official Arrested for Embezzlement Nubia Parada Mendoza, the Director General of Internal Markets of the Minister of Oil and Mining was arrested today over “irregularities” regarding oil shipments she oversaw. Mendoza was charged with embezzlement and associating for the purposes of committing a crime. Opinion The government’s response to the United States travel bans distorts the reality of the situation so severely that it makes me wonder if the people responsible for writing the press release are aware of the facts at all. The entire document reads like a writing assignment on feigned outrage. The heart of the governmnet’s response to the sanctions is that they are an attack on the sovereignty of Venezuela, and an attempt by the United States to impose its law and will upon Venezuela:
The people of Venezuela ratify their independence and sovereignty. We do not recognize in any way the imperialist pretension to impose an extraterritorial jurisdiction nor in any kind of interference by foreign powers.
Two indisputable facts invalidate the Venezuelan government’s outrage:
- The sanctions in question are visa restrictions barring entry to select individuals into the United States.
- The United States has every right – as does every other country – to decide who it lets into its borders.
The United States is not “imposing an extraterritorial jurisdiction” (whatever that means) nor is it assaulting the sovereignty or independence of the Venezuelan people. The United States is merely exercising its legal right to control entry into its territory. And there’s nothing Venezuela – nor any other country – can, or should, do about it.
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In Venezuela 
