Economic Sabotage and Crimes against Humanity: Venezuela Must Sue the US at the International Court

Nuremberg Principles of International Law 6: Crimes against humanity:

Such as (c) Inhuman acts done against any civilian population. United Nations Convention on Genocide Article II genocide means acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national or other group, as such: (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

Ongoing Crime Against Humanity Being Openly Committed

Reuters reported that even prior to last Friday’s clarification from the US Treasury, European buyers were already slashing purchases because of concerns over payments. Reuters reported that two of the world’s largest oil traders, Vitol and Trafigura, said that they would comply with all US sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal reported oil storage is “filling up” in Venezuela because of a lack of buyers.

Moreover, not only are the effects of the sanctions more far-reaching, but also more immediate. PDVSA, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company has demanded upfront payment, likely because it fears not being paid at all or having the revenues steered to the opposition. Indeed, the US effort to steer PDVSA and its revenues into the hands of the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido appears to be a decisive turning point.

Oil tankers linked to Chevron, Lukoil and Respsol are delayed, redirected or sitting offshore because of lack of payment. The WSJ says that several of those tankers…”are now anchored off the coast of Maracaibo sitting idle”.

“This is an absolute disaster,” Luis Hernandez, a Venezuelan oil union leader, told the WSJ. “There’s almost no way to move the oil.”

Unable to sell any oil, the Venezuelan government could quickly run out of cash. The result could be a humanitarian catastrophe, a merciless and destructive objective that the Trump administration seems to have in mind.

Then there are the Brits

The Bank of England is currently withholding $1.2 billion in gold from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, but is being urged by Washington to release it to the chairman of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido. Last week, the US backed Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela, after he declared himself interim president.

The Venezuelan government must sue the US government in the International Court of Justice for triggering economic instability and poverty by sanctioning all its oil sales, seizing its assets and bank deposits

According to the Charter of the United Nations[1], only the UN Security Council has a mandate by the international community to apply sanctions (Article 41). Only the UN Security Council. Principle 6 of the Nuremberg Principles of International Law[2] defines Crimes against humanity: inhuman acts done against any civilian population. I.e. inhuman acts done against any civilian population is a crime against humanity deserving punishment.

Stealing, confiscating and misappropriating of funds needed to feed a population and blocking its government with sanctions from income in trade in order to feed its population certainly are certainly current and past inhuman acts against the civilian population of Venezuela.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide[3] was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951.  United Nations -Treaty Series Convention on Genocide.

  • Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
  • Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group, as such: (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part:

Officials of United States government are deliberately inflicting on the Venezuelan nation conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in part and causing serious bodily and mental harm to Venezuelans, and by the The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the United Nations General Assembly this is a punishable crime of genocide.

The Venezuela government MUST sue the US in the International Court of Justice for creating famine by & blocking all oil sales & seizing bank deposits.

In 1986, the International Court of Justice in adjudicating The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America,  held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government international law supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua’s harbors. Never mind that the United States refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the ICJ lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. Never mind that U.S. also blocked enforcement of the judgment by the United Nations Security Council and thereby prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any compensation.

The General Assembly voted twice in favor of a resolution calling for full and immediate compliance with the judgement with only Israel voting against with the USA, but more importantly, probably because of the great attention the US conviction received in ‘the court of public opinion,’ the US stopped mining Nicaragua’s harbors and lessened outright support for the Contra’s murderous attacks. The Venezuela government must sue the United States in the International Court of Justice for creating famine by & blocking all its oil sales & stealing its bank deposits.

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This article was originally published on The Ghion Journal.

Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India and in the US by Dissident Voice, Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents, Minority Perspective, UK and others. Jay now resides in NYC.

Featured image is from The Ghion Journal


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