Venezuela: Bombs and sanctions – the humanitarian consequences

Loss of Venezuelan lives

Following the American attack on Venezuela on 3 January, international and Norwegian television channels have devoted much airtime to President Trump and his comments. They continually air clip Trump proudly describing the attack as successful, without any loss of American lives. The contrast to the lack of focus on the attack’s humanitarian consequences is striking. According to Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, the attack killed 100 Venezuelans and wounded approximately another 100, including civilians.

The bombing of essential medical supplies

The bombs fell in three Venezuelan states: Aragua, Miranda and La Guaira, with the humanitarian consequences in La Guaira being particularly serious. The Venezuelan Institute for Social Security (Instituto Venezolano de Seguros Sociales – IVSS) reports that several storage facilities containing medical equipment used for dialysis and other treatments for kidney disease were bombed during the attack.

The IVSS characterizes the bombing as a deliberate attempt to restrict access to vital treatment for 9,000 patients with chronic kidney disease. These patients have had access to free renal replacement therapies in La Guaira. The IVSS condemns the attack as a breach of the UN Charter. Nelase Bermudéz, speaking on behalf of La Guaira’s state health authority, says that the bombs destroyed three months’ worth of medical supplies for kidney patients.

The Governor of La Guaira, José Alejandro Terán, also condemns the attack and has shared audio-visual materials on social media. The materials show the damage caused by the bombs in the region:

Terán directs furious rhetoric towards the United States: “Here are the results of the missiles of the American government, which has maliciously sought to destroy storage facilities full of medicines and food, in order to leave Venezuelans without medicines.”

Brazil offers Venezuela medical aid

The consequences of the bombing were so severe that on 6 January, the Brazilian health minister, Alexandre Padilha, declared that the Brazilian government would send medical equipment and medicines to Venezuela. The offer of medical aid from Brazil came after Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva, had condemned as unacceptable the American attack and the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president, and had declared that the attack created a dangerous precedent for the international community.

The bombing of medical storage facilities added to the problems already experienced by Venezuelan patients with chronic diseases, as a result of American sanctions on the country.

American sanctions on Venezuela have serious humanitarian consequences

In a 2019 study conducted by Mark Weisbrot from the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and Jeffrey Sachs, the authors link the American sanctions to 40,000 excess deaths in Venezuela in the period 2017-2018.

According to a 2021 report to the UN General Assembly by Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights, the sanctions on Venezuela have had many damaging consequences. They  have resulted in the blocking of transactions earmarked for the purchase of medicines from abroad (including medicines to be used for the treatment of tuberculosis) and, furthermore in the blocking of procurements of vaccines, antibiotics and anaesthetic drugs.

In her 2021 report, the Special Rapporteur regretted that the political opposition in Venezuela was not willing to support an agreement between the Venezuelan government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Under this agreement, Venezuelan gold frozen by the Bank of England should have been released for the purchase of medicines, vaccines, and medical equipment. The lack of support from the opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, caused the deal to be blocked.

Neither international nor Norwegian media have shown much interest in the humanitarian consequences of the U.S bombing of Venezuela.

The same holds for the sanctions on the country. The loss of human life as a direct result of the bombing is serious, but lethal effects of the lack of access to medicines and medical equipment are at least as serious and affect a large number of people. While information about the humanitarian consequences of the attack on Venezuela has been almost absent from media outlets, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has received an extremely high level of attention. Machado has supported and defended the breaches of international law perpetrated by the United States under Trump, including the bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro. Recently, she attempted to sweet-talk Trump by handing him her Nobel medal. Machado has also been a particularly eager advocate for sanctions on Venezuela: sanctions that kill and that have been declared illegal by the UN. Through her unreserved support for Trump, Machado is thus indirectly complicit in the suffering of the Venezuelan people.

It is high time for the international and Norwegian media to focus on the humanitarian consequences of the U.S attack and sanctions on Venezuela, and on Machado’s shared responsibility for them.

• Wenche Iren Hauge is a Senior Researcher at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)