The People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, assured this Friday that the restrictions that affect PDVSA’s refining and fuel production system are just one example of the “pain and hardship” that the sanctions imposed by the Government of the United States seek to cause in the Venezuelan people.
“PDVSA has been severely affected by the blockade. However, we will be able to move forward with effort and conscience,” said the Foreing Minister, through a message on his Twitter account @jaarreaza.
¡Dolor y penurias! Ese es el objetivo de las “sanciones” de EEUU. Así lo confiesa en su libro @RichardMNephew. PDVSA ha sido severamente afectada por el bloqueo. Las restricciones de gasolina, son sólo un ejemplo. Sin embargo, lograremos salir adelante con esfuerzo y conciencia. pic.twitter.com/vKjKbZvmyi
— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) September 11, 2020
He reiterated that the US strategy of unilateral coercive measures is revealed in the book “The Art of Sanctions” by Richard Nephew, a former adviser to the US government and shared the quote where the author explains that the objective is to “increase painfully, methodically and efficiently in the areas that are vulnerable.”
In his work, Nephew indicates that policymakers, in this case the Trump Administration, “must know in advance whether they are willing to bankrupt their adversary, sending their population into hardship or not.”
In a recent interview with a private television station, the Head of Venezuelan diplomacy specified that the US author details in his book that the ultimate goal of the sanctions is for the affected government to do what the aggressor country wants (capitulate) or the people to revolt and remove them from power. “It is a way of coercing, a formula of domination to impose its will through pain, suffering, death, disease”, he summarized.
Given the severe impact that the restrictive measures generate on PDVSA processes, the Presidential Commission “Alí Rodríguez Araque” announced this Thursday the temporarily implementation of a special contingency plan for the supply of fuel, which will tend to regularize gasoline distribution in the short and medium term.