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Sanctions

US Seizes Iranian Oil From Four Tankers En Route To Venezuela

The Trump administration has seized the cargo of four tankers it was targeting for transporting Iranian fuel to Venezuela, U.S. officials said Thursday, as it steps up its campaign of maximum pressure against the two heavily sanctioned allies. Last month, federal prosecutors in Washington filed a civil forfeiture complaint alleging that the sale was arranged by a businessman with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. At the time, sanctions experts thought it would be impossible to enforce the U.S. court order in international waters. A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that no military force was used in the seizures and that the ships weren’t physically confiscated. Rather, U.S. officials threatened ship owners, insurers and captains with sanction to force them to hand over their cargo, which now becomes U.S. property, the official said. It is not clear where the vessels or their cargoes currently are.

China To Sanction US Senators, NED And NGO Chiefs Over Hong Kong

China on Monday announced sanctions on a group of 11 Americans, including lawmakers and top executives of American NGOs, in retaliation for US sanctions on a group of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press conference that Beijing would impose sanctions on Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, all of whom are Republicans.

There Is No Political Solution To The Syrian Conflict

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, of the Obama administration, created a mantra for the media: “There is no military solution to Syria.”  He said it so many times, he seemed to convince everyone.  However, after 9 years of conflict it appears there is neither a military, nor political solution for Syria. Despite the fact that the Syrian government under President Assad, with help from Russia, has regained 70% of the territory, and all the major cities are calm, still there is no possibility for recovery or reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes and lives due to the US sanctions.

CODEPINK Denounces Elliott Abrams’ Appointment As US Special Representative For Iran

The appointment of Elliott Abrams to replace Brian Hook as the next U.S. Special Representative for Iran is another low point for the Trump administration’s disastrous policy towards Iran. The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington’s failed policies of regime change, including in his present-day position as Trump’s representative for Venezuela. Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq.

Imperialist Economic War Costs US Almost $200 Billion

Quantifying each and every one of the effects of the war that imperialism has declared on the Venezuelan people is impossible. The attacks that Venezuelans have experienced since 1999 have not only been economic, they have also been psychological. There is no way to measure the consequences of the hatred that the undemocratic opposition has sown with its anti-socialist propaganda, to the point of burning people alive if they are suspected Chavistas. The resentment that the Venezuelan people have towards those who claim to be Venezuelans, but who have sold out their homeland, is also unmeasurable. That said, focusing on the economic dimension we have updated the calculations that we made in March 2019. At that point, losses caused by this war amounted to $125 billion; we have now calculated those for all of 2019, which total $68 billion (all amounts in US dollars). Therefore, the total economic losses between 2016 and 2019 are $194 billion.

Venezuela Wins Right To Appeal Ruling Barring Access To Gold Reserves

The Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) has won the right to appeal a British court decision denying it custody over 31 tons of the nation’s gold held by the Bank of England (BoE). On July 2, the United Kingdom’s High Court “unequivocally recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president,” following the UK Foreign Office position and rejecting the Maduro government’s right to repatriate the gold belonging to the BCV. Since late 2018, the BoE has refused to return the gold deposited in its vaults, which is valued at an estimated US $1.2 billion. Lawyers for the BCV announced on Friday that they had secured the appeal, which they hailed as an important step forward in the case. “It is incredibly rare for a trial judge to give leave to appeal against their own judgment, and we are pleased to have been granted a limited appeal.”

Long Overdue For Latin America: A “Good Neighbor Policy”

U.S. policy towards Venezuela has been a fiasco. Try as it might, the Trump regime-change team has been unable to depose President Maduro and finds itself stuck with a self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó, who President Trump was reported to have called “a kid” who “doesn’t have what it takes.” The Venezuelan people have paid a heavy price for Trump’s debacle, which has included crippling economic sanctions and coup attempts. So has U.S. prestige internationally, as both the UN and the EU have urged lifting sanctions during the pandemic but the U.S. has refused.

US Sanctions Are Part Of A Multi-Front War On Syria

The US is waging multiple fronts of war against Syria, including brutal sanctions while claiming concern over the wellbeing of Syrian civilians – the vast majority of whom are suffering as a direct result of US policies. On June 17, the US implemented the Caesar Act, America’s latest round of draconian sanctions against the Syrian people, to “protect” them, America claims. This, after years of bombing civilians and providing support to anti-government militants, leading to the proliferation of terrorists who kidnap, imprison, torture, maim, and murder the same Syrian civilians.  Just weeks after these barbaric sanctions were enforced, cue American crocodile tears about Syrian suffering, and claims that Moscow and Damascus are allegedly preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid. More hot air from American hypocritical talking heads who don’t actually care about Syrians’ wellbeing.

US Blockade Over Cuba Grows During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Havana, Cuba - The US does not skimp on means to stop Cuba's development by imposing unilateral measures of extraterritorial blockade, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) denounced. So far the year, a period marked by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a strengthening of calls to end the US economic and commercial blockade against Cuba, Washington applied another eleven regulations, noted Johana Tablada, deputy director for the United States at MINREX. With those restrictions, the White House obstructed banking operations and limited the arrival in this country of medical supplies, fuel, donations and other commercial transactions, Tablada pointed out.

The New Pirates Of Ancient Albion

The English High Court ruled earlier this month that the virtual and self-proclaimed “interim president” (Washington’s puppet) Juan Guaido and not the Venezuelan state should administer the 31 tonnes of gold reserves stored in the UK (1). This debacle proves that national and international law are no longer worth a dime, and represents a contemporary act of stale piracy by ancient Albion (2). The trial in England for Venezuela's blocked assets began in London on June 22 and concerned US $1.3 billion of state property. For decades, successive governments, even before Chavez, used the country’s gold bars in the Bank of England's underground vaults in international financial transactions. Twenty percent of the world's gold is kept in these vaults, in what is a legacy to colonial-time dynamics.

The Impact Of The Economic War On Venezuela

It would be impossible to count each and every one of the ways in which the war on Venezuela declared by imperialism has harmed the country.  The aggressions that we, the Venezuelans, have experienced since 1999 have been not only economic; they have been psychological as well.  There is no way to measure the consequences of the hate planted by the anti-democratic opposition, with its anti-socialist propaganda; it has extended to the point of burning people alive for being Chavistas.  The outrage felt by the Venezuelan people when they see those who have sold out their native land while calling themselves Venezuelan is also immeasurable. Having said all that, but focusing on the economic effects, we have brought up to date the calculations made in March 2019.  Up to that point the economic war had caused losses that totaled $125,000,000,000. (125 billion dollars.)

Why The United States Is Criminally Attacking Venezuela’s Gasoline Supply

According to a report issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, the US government is attacking the gasoline supply to Venezuelan aiming at its agricultural sector and so attacking food production, which would lead to the total collapse of the Venezuelan population under the guise of illegal sanctions. In the report, written on April 5 of this year, analyzed by the agricultural engineer Clara Sánchez and quoted by the investigative website “La Tabla”, the US predicts a serious decrease in Venezuelan production of most of the basic food items, shortage of agricultural inputs, quality seeds, fertilizers and an inability to grant credits. “Without fuel you can not make the tractors work,” she wrote.

‘Godfather’ Donald’s Mafia War On The ICC

Free advice: one way for an administration to avoid the ire of an International Criminal Court (ICC) is not to act like a mafia crime family. Appearances and all. Only discretion has never been Donald Trump’s game. The kid from Queens – who built a casino empire in mobbed-up 1980s Atlantic City – thrives in another (under)world entirely. So, when the ICC had the temerity to even investigate America’s spies and soldiers in Afghanistan, Trump tried rather stronger(-arm) tactics: Mafia-style intimidation. I’m no Martin Scorsese, but here’s how it basically went down, in lay(“made-“)man’s terms: Youse foreign snowflakes from sissy Netherlands wanna stick your noses in our business? Alright then, my associates here got somethin’ for ya: Badabing! Suck on these! [sanctions, canceled visas, and endless threats]

UK Decision On Venezuelan Gold Condemned: ‘It’s Daylight Robbery!’

The fact that the UK High Court cites the UK government’s recognition of Juan Guaidó as the reason for blocking access to the gold is farcical. The UK government has formally recognised Guaidó as “interim president”, but maintains full consular and diplomatic relations with Venezuela and its legitimate government. There is a Venezuelan ambassador in London and a British ambassador in Caracas. Furthermore, the Venezuelan government had pledged that proceeds from the repatriation of the gold reserves would only be used, under supervision of the UN Human Development Program, in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela. By continuing to illegally withhold the Venezuelan gold, the UK is endangering lives in Venezuela.

UK Denies Venezuela Access To Its Gold For Food And Medicine

The United Kingdom's High Court Thursday decided that opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido can access 31 tons of Venezuelan gold held in the Bank of England, which prevents President Nicolas Maduro's administration from using those resources to fight the pandemic. The ruling about this monetary reserve valued at over US $ 1 billion occurs after months of disputes between Venezuela and the Bank of England, which denied the constitutionally constituted government access to its own resources On May 14, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) sued the Bank of England to obtain and sell the Venezuelan gold bars. The South American country intends to sell the resources to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and so gain food and medicine needed amid pandemic.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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