Prolonged trade blockades and economic pressure have hampered Venezuela's development and hindered the country's efforts to rebuild after two deadly earthquakes, according to William Castillo, Venezuela's deputy minister of anti-blockade policies.
The June 24 earthquakes that struck Venezuela have killed at least 2,595 people and injured more than 12,000 others, the government said on Thursday. The disaster also destroyed 189 buildings.
For more than a decade, Venezuela has faced unilateral coercive measures from the United States that have hampered its economic development and its ability to respond to events such as the recent earthquake.
Although the United States has recently granted temporary exemptions for earthquake relief, years of resource shortage has deeply disrupted the internal structure of the country's industries, said Castillo.
"To be sure, people sometimes say Venezuela lacks certain equipment, but these shortfalls should be linked to the country's resource constraints and, in particular, to the decade-plus external trade blockade, especially that targeting the private sector," he said.
"For 12 years, Venezuela has been unable to trade its oil freely. Its overseas assets have been seized. Hundreds of millions of [U.S.] dollars in accounts, exceeding 30 billion dollars, have been frozen. And 22 billion dollars are still held in the international financial system. Moreover, due to so-called over-compliance and shadow sanctions, many companies including construction firms and utility companies, have stopped supplying Venezuela. This, in turn, has triggered collapse, repeated bankruptcies, and divestment from certain service sectors such as energy," said Castillo.
The Venezuelan people have been demanding an end to the U.S. sanctions, and Acting President Delcy Rodriguez has already led anti-sanctions rallies across the country earlier this year.
"I believe what we must dismantle completely is the sanctions barrier. We must use this tragedy and the very unfortunate situation our country is facing to take down that barrier, to scrap coercive measures and economic pressure policies, all of which have inflicted tremendous harm on our country and our people," said Castillo.
U.S. economic sanctions hamper Venezuela's earthquake relief efforts: official
