WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
The 54-year-old merchant said
the embargo “will affect the ev-
eryday citizen.”
“How much more can we sur-
vive in such disgrace?” he asked.
The political stalemate here
has dragged on for months.
Nicolás Maduro claimed victo-
ry last year in elections widely
viewed as fraudulent. The Nation-
al Assembly declared Guaidó as
Venezuela’s rightful leader in Jan-
uary, and he quickly won backing
from the United States and more
than 50 other countries.
Guaidó has led massive crowds
of supporters in the streets of
Caracas and around the country
in demanding Maduro’s ouster
along with free and fair elections.
But in the months since an
April 30 uprising failed to spur
the military to turn against Ma-
duro, the movement has strug-
gled to maintain momentum.
Polls show that the number of
people who believe Guaidó will
succeed in ousting the govern-
ment in the short term has
dropped since February. R efugees
arriving at Colombian border cit-
ies in recent weeks said they had
delayed plans to leave Venezuela
while watching the opposition
movement grow but had lost hope
that change would come this year.
Yont Esposito, a 30-year-old
letter carrier in Caracas, said he
was preparing for inflation.
“In a few weeks, prices will
start to rise further, and the gov-
ernment will use the excuse of the
embargo,” he said. “But any help
is welcome, especially now that
opposition leaders aren’t doing
much.”
Opposition leaders and gov-
ernment officials have been meet-
ing for talks mediated by Norway
aimed at resolving the stalemate.
The sides concluded a fourth
round last week in Barbados
without a resolution.
Interior designer Marisol
Mesa, 60, expected conditions
here to get worse. But she said she
supported anything that could
help bring down Maduro.
“It’s a great way to hurt these
thieves,” she said. “Maybe we’ll be
in a bad shape for a while. But
how much worse can it be?”
[email protected]will help oust Maduro or acceler-
ate the solution to the problem
because the key aspects that are
holding Maduro to power, the
military and territorial control,
are firm.”
Opposition leader Juan Guaidó
expressed support for the embar-
go, saying it would protect the
country’s assets and prevent for-
eigners from doing business that
maintains Maduro’s government.
In a Twitter thread Monday, he
noted that it included “humani-
tarian exceptions regarding food
and medicines and protects the
private sector that doesn’t do
business with the dictatorship.”
Ordinary Venezuelans spoke of
the possibility of more shortages.
“We would have to see if it is
exactly the same as the Cuban
embargo,” said Jorge Rojas, a 31-
year-old computer systems engi-
neer in Caracas. “I don’t k now the
real impact it will have on the
nation, but almost every product
that we have here in Venezuela is
imported, and that could be a real
problem.
“I’m waiting. It’s still too soon
to get anxious about it.”
But José Gregorio Maduro —
no relation to the president — was
worried. Sales at h is seafood shop
are down 60 percent this year. He
blamed the United States, in part,
for imposing sanctions on the
state oil company.million people have fled.
Venezuelan officials on Tues-
day denounced what they called
“economic terrorism.”
“They have said that this U.S.
executive order is only against
Maduro,” Vice President Delcy
Rodriguez said in a televised ad-
dress. “No. This order attacks the
entire population of Venezuela,
all its sectors.”
Government officials did not
respond to a request for com-
ment.
Analysts said it was too early to
predict whether the new sanc-
tions would accelerate Maduro’s
departure. The U.S. embargoes on
Iran, North Korea and Syria have
failed to dislodge their leaders.
The head of the United Nations’
regional body for Latin America
said last year that the U.S. embar-
go on Cuba had cost the Caribbe-
an island $130 billion over nearly
six decades, but the communist
government established there by
Fidel Castro remains in power.
“There is no doubt that the new
sanctions will severely limit the
government’s maneuvering pow-
er,” s aid Luis Vicente Leon, direc-
tor of the Caracas polling firm
Datanalisis. “But it will also affect
the lives of all the residents of
Venezuela, who will be directly
impacted.
“The most complicated part is
that it’s not clear at all that thisBY MARIANA ZUÑIGA
AND RACHELLE KRYGIERcaracas, venezuela — José
Rángel didn’t open his furniture
store here on Tuesday until 3 p.m.
Sales are down 80 percent this
year, and he has decided to work
only half days.
Now he expects conditions to
worsen.
After months of stiffening U.S.
sanctions aimed at ousting Presi-
dent Nicolás Maduro, President
Trump announced plans late
Monday to impose a full Cuba-
style embargo against the South
American country.
Long-suffering Venezuelans,
bracing for more hardship, ex-
pressed conflicting emotions
Tuesday.
“No dictator has been ousted
due to an embargo,” said Neyda
London, a 54-year-old store man-
ager in Caracas. “It didn’t work in
Cuba, and unfortunately it’s not
going to bring the end of Maduro
and his allies.”
But Rángel, 63, said Venezue-
lans need to sacrifice “if we ever
want to overthrow this dictator-
ship.”
“If we’re not willing to suffer,”
he said, “I don’t think we can ever
get over this.”
Trump’s executive order im-
poses a full embargo on Maduro’s
government, putting the country
on a footing similar to Cuba, Iran,
North Korea and Syria. The meas-
ure freezes all property a nd assets
of the government and its offi-
cials, and it prohibits transac-
tions with Venezuelan entities in-
cluding the central bank and the
state oil company.
The oil-rich nation, locked in a
political stalemate between Ma-
duro’s government and the
U.S.-backed opposition, has
struggled for years under hyper-
inflation, power outages and
widespread shortages of food, wa-
ter and medicine. More than 4
BY KAROUN DEMIRJIANCongressional Republicans
and Democrats are threatening to
force President Trump’s hand in
sanctioning Turkey if he does not
outline soon what further punish-
ment awaits the NATO ally for
purchasing a Russian-made anti-
missile system in defiance of U.S.
sanctions targeting such transac-
tions with Moscow.
Lawmakers want Trump to im-
pose sanctions on Turkey, which
took possession of the Russian
S-400 system despite warnings
that doing so would cost Ankara
the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and
trigger mandatory punitive mea-
sures. Trump announced in July
the cancellation of the F-35, but
he has not indicated whether his
administration will apply addi-
tional sanctions.
The president has resisted that
idea as his national security team
seeks to prevent Turkey from in-
vading northeastern Syria, where
U.S. allies — local Kurdish fight-
ers whom the Turkish govern-
ment considers a threat — have
been battling the Islamic State.
As Trump deliberates, key law-
makers are weighing how to act if
he does not.
“We would have to pass a law
that wipes out any sort of national
security waiver — which we try
not to do because we want to give
presidents that flexibility,” said
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “But if
it’s abused, we’ll have to act, I
imagine.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
has suggested “tiered sanctions”
detailing step-by-step conse-
quences Turkey would face for
making progressively closermoves toward Russia — reason-
ing that such an approach would
leave Trump “some ability to con-
tinue to negotiate” with Turkey
“and encourage them to stay in
NATO.”
Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee Chairman James E. Risch
(R-Idaho), who is close to Trump
but opposes waiving sanctions on
Turkey, declined to detail his
plans. Any effort in the Senate to
put a check on Trump would have
to be endorsed in the House, a
near-certainty given that cham-
ber is under the Democrats’ con-
trol.
Congress’s consideration of re-
voking Trump’s power to waive
sanctions, or dictating the terms
of what sanctions may be im-
posed, reflects the worsening dis-
trust in his foreign policy moves.
Already, both the Senate and
House versions of next year’s de-
fense authorization bill block Tur-
key from procuring the F-35. Sha-
heen and Sen. James Lankford(R-Okla.) also wrote an amend-
ment explicitly stating that
Trump should impose sanctions
on Turkey for accepting Russia’s
S-400 antimissile system.
“We want to make clear...
sanctions apply,” Lankford said.
“If another country wants to go
out and buy Russian systems,
they’ll have the same response
from the United States.”
Ye t most senators acknowledge
there are limitations, arguing
that while the United States must
not be seen as showing leniency
to Ankara, Turkey’s participation
in NATO remains important.
“I think the best thing to do for
Turkey is hook up our economies,
not let the S-400 define the rela-
tionship,” said Sen. Lindsey O.
Graham (R-S.C.). He said Con-
gress should not impose sanc-
tions until Turkey activates the
weapons system. “We’re trying to
avoid sanctions if we can.”
Graham’s recommendation
mirrors the message that Repub-lican senators received from the
president last week. Instead of
sanctions, Trump pushed the idea
of a free-trade deal with Turkey.
Under the law, the president
must implement at least five of 12
sanctions categories at h is dispos-
al, measures that include denying
export licenses, loans and other
banking transactions, and visas
to the United States. The presi-
dent has the power to waive those
sanctions if he determines it is in
the country’s national security
interest, but the majority of sena-
tors are opposed to him using that
authority.
“How do you get a president to
follow the law when he doesn’t
want to?” said the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee’s ranking
Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez
(N.J.).
Risch said it would be prema-
ture to assume that Trump is not
going to act. But with Congress on
its August recess, some worry
that he may not feel a sense ofurgency to enforce the sanctions,
weakening them as a threat to
others who seek business with
Russia.
The law mandates sanctions
against any entity with “signifi-
cant” relations with Russia’s de-
fense industry or intelligence
agencies, and is likely to cause
more problems in the future.
India, with which the Trump
administration has cultivated a
stronger defense relationship,
has signed a contract with Russia
to buy the S-400, scheduled for
delivery next year. Saudi Arabia
and Qatar have also expressed
interest in purchasing the system.
“Either it matters or it doesn’t,”
Rubio said. “What country in the
world would ever listen to us in
the future if we allow [Turkey] to
do this without facing conse-
quences?”
[email protected]Ka ren DeYoung contributed to this
report.Congress may force Trump to follow law, impose sanctions on Turkey
Venezuelans brace for new hardships
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCKVenezuelans line up to enter a bank last month during a blackout in Caracas. The country has suffered hyperinflation and extreme
shortages of food and other necessities under the rule of its socialist government. A U.S. embargo is likely to increase the short-term pain.
Some say pain of U.S.
embargo will be bearable
if Maduro is forced outCARLOS BECERRA/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Nicolás Maduro continues to rule as president of Venezuela despite
broad international recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaidó.BY KAREN DEYOUNGThe Trump administration on
Tuesday warned Russia, China
and “any persons” who continue
supporting President Nicolás
Maduro that it is prepared to
penalize them as part of a new
economic blockade of Ven-
ezuela.
“To both Russia and China, we
say that your support to the
Maduro regime is intolerable,
particularly to the democratic
regime that will replace Ma-
duro,” White House national se-
curity adviser John Bolton said
in a speech at a conference of
international partners in Lima,
Peru. The United States and
others in Latin America and
Europe recognize opposition
leader Juan Guaidó as interim
president and have called for
new elections.
Describing the Maduro re-
gime as massively corrupt and
responsible for “people starving
in the streets” in Venezuela, Bol-
ton said, “You have to ask your-
self... who would support such
a tyrant? Look no farther than
Cuba, Russia, China and Iran.”
“We say again to Russia, and
especially to those who control
its finances: Do not double
down on a bad bet. To China,
which is already desperate to
recoup its financial losses,” in-
cluding billions in loans to Ven-
ezuela, “the quickest route to
getting repaid is to support a
new legitimate government,” he
said.
In Caracas, Maduro’s foreign
minister, Jorge Arreaza, de-
nounced what he said was an
attempt to “intimidate” t he Ma-
duro regime and called Presi-
dent Trump “a racist and su-
premacist tycoon.”
In C uba, one of Maduro’s c los-
est allies, President Miguel
Díaz-Canel said the administra-
tion had resorted to “cowardly”
action because it was “frustrat-
ed in the face of the bravery and
resistance of the Venezuelan
people.”
Russia and China made no
initial comment.
Trump signed an executive
order late Monday that, Bolton
said, imposes “full blocking
sanctions on assets of the gov-
ernment of Venezuela within
our j urisdiction... freezes all of
the Venezuelan government’s
assets, and prohibits transac-
tions with it, unless specifically
exempted.”
“Critically,” he said, the order
“also authorizes sanctions on
foreign persons who provide
support or goods or services to
any designated person, includ-
ing the government of Ven-
ezuela.”
It also prohibits visas for gov-
ernment officials and other re-
gime supporters, many o f whom
have already been barred from
the United States.
The White House issued a
statement Tuesday repeating
that “all options are on the ta-
ble” f or dealing with Venezuela,
a suggestion that it is still con-
sidering the use of the military
to achieve its goals. Pentagon
officials have resisted any mili-
tary involvement, which is also
opposed by most Latin Ameri-
can governments.
The Lima meeting includes
representatives of more than 50
countries that have declared
Maduro illegitimate and recog-
nized Guaidó.
The new embargo follows
months of escalating U.S. sanc-
tions, including a blanket freeze
on all official Venezuelan assets
in the United States and a prohi-bition on any transactions with
Maduro’s government.
The embargo comes at a time
when Venezuela is already col-
lapsing. Oil production has fall-
en to levels not seen since the
1940s, due to long-term mis-
management but also because of
a ban on shipments to the Unit-
ed States imposed this year that
robbed Venezuela of its largest
single source of hard c urrency.
More than 4 million Venezue-
lans have fled, most of them i nto
neighboring South American
countries. In addition to report-
ing severe shortages of food and
medicine, the United Nations
reported last month that thou-
sands of Venezuelans have been
victims of “torture and ill-treat-
ment, sexual violence, and kill-
ings and enforced disappear-
ance.”
Previous U.S. sanctions have
blocked vessels transporting oil
between Venezuela and Cuba,
which supports Venezuela’s se-
curity services. Oil export sanc-
tions have also affected the few
remaining U.S. companies oper-
ating in Venezuela, including
Chevron. Last month, the ad-
ministration extended until Oc-
tober a waiver of its ban on
dealings with PDVSA, the state-
run oil company, for Chevron
and a handful of U.S. oil services
companies.
It was unclear whether the
broad new sanctions eliminate
that waiver. Ray Fohr, external
affairs adviser at Chevron’s cor-
porate headquarters, said Tues-
day that “we are reviewing the
executive order.”
China has extended massive
loans to Maduro, as has Russia,
which has provided credit in
exchange for o wnership o f parts
of Venezuela’s energy assets in-
cluding oil and natural gas
fields. Russia has also been Ven-
ezuela’s principal arms supplier.
The near-bankrupt govern-
ment has sold off gold — much o f
it to Turkey — and other assets
in an effort to remain afloat but
has nowhere near the resources
required to confront serious
structural problems, including
nationwide power and water
shortages. Venezuelans are also
facing record hyperinflation
that has broken supply chains
and made basic goods increas-
ingly difficult to afford.
The new U. S. action puts Ven-
ezuela on par with Cuba, Iran,
North Korea a nd Syria, the other
countries under a similar full
embargo.
In his speech, Bolton com-
pared t he measure t o other a sset
freezes against governments in
the Western Hemisphere, in-
cluding the Cuba embargo,
which was f irst imposed in 1962.
Similar, temporary sanctions
were imposed against the Pana-
manian government of Manuel
Antonio Noriega in 1988 and
against Nicaragua in 1985.
“It worked in Panama; it
worked in Nicaragua once, and
it will work there again; and it
will work in Venezuela and
Cuba,” Bolton said.
The Cuba embargo has thus
far failed to dislodge the revolu-
tionary government that took
over the island in 1959. In Nica-
ragua, strict sanctions were ac-
companied by an unsuccessful,
U. S.-funded and promoted war
by opposition “contras” against
a leftist government that was
defeated at the polls in 1990,
reelected in 2006 and remains
in power.
In Panama, Noriega was f inal-
ly dislodged by a U. S. military
invasion in 1989.
[email protected]Bolton threatens China,
Russia with penalties
for backing Maduro
Battle centers on nation’s
purchase of Russian
antimissile system