Thread by @rosendo_joe

The sanctions on #Venezuela , a democracy that hasn't invaded anyone, are much harsher than those that have been imposed #Russia.

& of course sanctions on both countries are illegal acts of war unless there is a Chpt 7 UN Security Council resolution authorizing them.

THREAD

A detailed #Russia vs. @Venezuela sanctions comparison will soon be availbale, but let's compare & contrast sanctins on Vzla with sanctions that were imposed in Apartheid South Africa from 1985-1990

A friend pass along this 1992 paper to me which I will draw from. It cites a South Africa (SA) bank estimate saying sanctions cost apartheid SA $20 bn from 1985-1990. Vzla lost between $12 - 20 bn PER YEAR from 2017-2021 (just in lost oil revenues) due to sanctions

The oil revenue loss estimates for #Venezula come from the paper linked to below which also mentions other loss due to sanctoins (on top of lost oil revenues) ...

sanctionsandsecurity.org/wp-content/upl…

for example, $5 bn in blocked access to IMF special drawin rights (SDRs)

$7 bn in lost acces to emegency COVID-related financing from IMF

$1.9 bn blocked acces to gold held by Bank of England etc...

So its not even close, but there are other considerations. In 1986 Congress had to override Reagan's veto to impose santions on Apartheid SA at all. Think of the message that sent to Sa and foreign investors. Two obvious ones :

1) That it would not take much change for SA to get the sanctions weakened or removed
2) The Reagan government could hardly be expected to aggressively enfore the sanctions Congress forced on it. So "overcompliance" could hardly have been as big a problem as with Vzla

Ok but I gave you current $ value etimates fo rthe impact of the sanctions on SA & Vzla. What happens whwn you take into accoun the size of the SA ecnomcy in 1990 compared to Vzla ecnomcy between 2017-2021? Actually the comprison in US dollar vaue impact is simple becasue ...

SA's gdp was rough $100 bn in 1990, as was Vzla's (according to the IMF) in 2018