Darth Vader grip Venezuela
Venezuela March 23, 2019
Trump Official Boasts Crippling US Sanctions on Venezuela Are Like Darth
Vader's Death Grip
A Trump administration official bragged that US sanctions on Venezuela are
"like in Star Wars when Darth Vader constricts somebody's throat."
By Ben Norton
Trump administration officials are now publicly boasting about how their
sanctions are suffocating Venezuela, comparing them to the iron grip of the
diabolical villain of Star Wars.
The menacing language comes at the same time when the United States is
overseeing a coup attempt in the oil-rich country, which the Trump White
House claims is aimed at protecting "human rights."
A senior US government official bragged at a briefing on March 22, "The
effect of the sanctions is continuing and cumulative. It's sort of like in
Star Wars when Darth Vader constricts somebody's throat, that's what we are
doing to the regime economically," according to a report by Univision.
The Trump administration expanded its aggressive sanctions against Venezuela
on March 22, targeting the state-owned Venezuelan Economic and Social
Development Bank (BANDES) and four more affiliated banks.
Russ Dallen, the managing director of the Venezuelan investment bank Caracas
Capital, told Univision, "It sounds like they want to make Venezuela
radioactive. They want to choke off the money flow."
US sanctions have bled Venezuela of many billions of dollars. Venezuelan
civilians have suffered gravely, as Washington's explicit campaign of
economic warfare has prevented Caracas from importing medicine and medical
equipment.
Economist Mark Weisbrot, a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research and leading expert on Venezuela's economy, told The Grayzone in a
recent interview that the Trump administration's 2017 sanctions on Caracas
established a de facto "financial embargo."
Weisbrot added that the sanctions on Venezuela that were expanded in early
2019 "are very definitely among the worst sanctions ever imposed by the US
on any country, if not the worst."
Ben Norton
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a reporter for The Grayzone,
and the producer of the Moderate Rebels podcast, which he co-hosts with Max
Blumenthal. His website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
