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US sanctions against Venezuela ‘constitute acts of war’: Don DeBar

Friday, 09 August 2019 2:10 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 09 August 2019 5:02 PM ]

Protesters rally against US sanctions with a Venezuelan national flag in Caracas on August 7, 2019. (AFP photo)

The US sanctions that have been imposed against Venezuela are blatantly illegal, and they “constitute acts of war and collective punishment, forbidden under the UN Charter,” American journalist and political commentator Don DeBar has said.

The United Nations' human rights chief has warned that the latest US sanctions against Venezuela will worsen the situation for millions of “long-suffering” people across the oil-rich country.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday, stating that "all property and interests in property of the government of Venezuela that are in the United States... are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in.”

The order is also designed to prevent third-party countries doing business with the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

The new measures alarmed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who said the sanctions were "extremely broad".

PressTV-UN slams 'extremely broad' US sanctions on Venezuela

The United Nations' human rights chief warns that the latest US sanctions on Venezuela would intensify the suffering of millions of ordinary people.

“The US has been conducting economic warfare against Venezuela since at least the failed 2002 coup attempt. This has only been intensified as time moved forward over the last past 17 years,” DeBar told Press TV on Friday.

“The sanctions that have been imposed previously, as well as the most recently imposed sanctions, are blatantly illegal. They constitute acts of war and collective punishment, forbidden under the UN Charter,” he added.

“Such coercive measures are only to be undertaken with the approval of the UN Security Council, which approval has not been given. Absent the same, these acts are crimes against humanity,” he noted.

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