Biden Administration Admits US Sanctions Failed To Spur Regime Change in Venezuela

The Covid-19 outbreak and an increasingly harsh international sanctions regime have only made matters worse in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, a senior administration official told reporters that Washington is in “no rush” to lift a series of crippling sanctions imposed on the country – vastly widened under Donald Trump presidency – even as they accepted the penalties had failed to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

“We have to recognize here that unilateral sanctions over the last four years have not succeeded in achieving an electoral outcome in the country,” the official said, adding that the Biden administration would nonetheless continue to “increase pressure” on Caracas “in a coordinated fashion.”

While the official argued that the Venezuelan government had “adapted” to many of the penalties, a report last month from UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan found the civilian population continues to suffer immensely under US and international sanctions, warning that they are fueling “economic and humanitarian calamities.” She noted the sanctions have led to major shortages in water, medicine, fuel, electricity and food, driving a hunger crisis in which some 2.5 million Venezuelans face “severe” food insecurity.

A 2019 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, moreover, estimated US sanctions may have contributed to up to 40,000 excess deaths in the country between 2017 and 2018, suggesting they could meet the definition of “collective punishment” under international law.

As the Biden government pledges a new round of international pressure on Caracas, it continues to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “interim president,” a policy first adopted by the Trump administration in 2019 and taken up by a series of US allies. Trump would later voice support for a coup attempt led by the opposition leader in April 2019, which ultimately fizzled after a little more than one day.

In his first call with Guaido last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington is moving to “increase multilateral pressure” on Maduro globally and would continue to “press for a peaceful, democratic transition” in Venezuela.