US sanctions maybe have cost Venezuela hundreds of billions of dollars

The U.S. Treasury Department added a new round of sanctions on Venezuela on December 12, blacklisting four foreign shipping companies and nine oil tankers that transported crude oil to Venezuela, further exerting pressure on the Venezuelan government.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions on 3 Liberian shipping companies, 1 Italian company and 9 oil tankers under these companies on December 12, designating them as exporting Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba.

The United States will freeze the assets of these four companies in the United States and prohibit American citizens from doing business with them.

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said that crude oil export revenue remains “the lifeline of the Nicolas Maduro regime”, and the United States will continue to sanction enterprises that help Venezuelan government export crude oil.

The last round of U.S. sanctions mainly targeted Venezuelan oil companies, 34 oil tankers owned by the state-owned enterprise and two foreign companies that transported Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba.

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At the end of January, the United States announced sanctions against Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation, freezing its assets in the United States and withholding the proceeds of its crude oil exports to the United States.

According to the United States, Cuba is the main importer of Venezuelan crude oil; in exchange, Cuba sent political advisers, intelligence personnel, military officers and medical experts to Venezuela.

Cuba has previously stated that no matter how the United States sanctions Venezuela, Cuba will not abandon its allies.

People’s livelihood-stricken Associated Press reported that the United States recently imposed several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and financial fields, involving more than 150 people and entities, and revoked 718 “trusted” visas to the United States from Venezuelan government leaders.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is visiting four Latin American countries, said Tuesday that the US side will continue to pressure the Maduro government with sanctions and diplomacy and “will not withdraw from this fight”.

Critics say the Venezuelan people suffer from inflation and shortage of goods, and the US sanctions will only aggravate their suffering and will not help resolve the crisis.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zaharova said on November 11 that the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States have caused Venezuela more than $110 billion in losses. Instead of forcing a limited amount of humanitarian assistance to Venezuela, it is better to lift the sanctions.

Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition leader and parliamentary chairman, announced on January 23 that he was acting as “interim president” and was recognized by the United States and other European and Latin American countries. The United States has been stepping up sanctions against Venezuela in recent years in an attempt to force Maduro to step down.

The Venezuelan government has not responded to the latest U.S. sanctions for the time being. It had previously condemned the sanctions imposed by the United States as “unilateral, arbitrary, coercive and illegal”, saying that Venezuela continued to firmly safeguard its political, economic and cultural independence and that no action by the United States would yield Venezuelan people.

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