On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it would impose new sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil company and prevent any dealings with U.S. companies unless under special conditions.
In response, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from Minnesota, tweeted:
"Trump's new sanctions on Venezuela are nothing more than economic sabotage designed to force regime change by starving the very people we claim to be helping. We must lift these, & other sanctions impacting Venezuela's poor, & support dialogue between the opposition & government."
Rep. Omar, we are on the same team.
First, a warm salutation from the Venezuelan immigrant community in Minnesota. We acknowledge and thank you for the efforts your office pursues regarding immigrant rights, integration and social justice in Minnesota.
We are concerned by the rhetoric surrounding the humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela. On one hand, we see a conservative narrative seeking an intervention that Venezuelans see as detrimental to our well-being. We also note certain misconceptions regarding the interpretation of facts within the liberal narrative. We fear that these misconceptions will steer the debate away from human-rights violations and good governance.
These misconceptions include the nature of U.S.-imposed sanctions and the current transition and its constitutional foundation. We take the liberty, as Venezuelans who have suffered these violations to our human rights, to shed some light onto the social reality of Venezuela:
1) U.S. sanctions on Venezuela
Sanctions were a bipartisan effort to address corruption and human-rights violations in Venezuela, affecting only public and security officials involved in them. Given the track record of U.S. foreign policy, we understand that any sanctions can be interpreted as a mirror to the Cuban embargo. These sanctions do not resemble that destructive embargo.