tf on Nostr: TLDR; sanctions are not why Venezuelan pensioners are on $1 per day while the ...

TLDR; sanctions are not why Venezuelan pensioners are on $1 per day while the #bolibourgeoisie live the high life

quoting
nevent1q…akf9

This is mostly incorrect

* Chávez did not nationalize the oil industry, it was nationalized in 1976 as the state-owned company PdVSA

* Chávez did not hold a referendum on nationalizing the oil industry

* There were no sanctions related to Chávez (not) nationalizing the oil industry

* The only economic sanctions the Obama administration imposed were in 2011, denying U.S. government contracts to PdVSA due to PdVSA supplying Iran. That was 2 years before Chávez died. Sanctions by the Obama admin after his death were targeted against individuals (denial of visa's, freezing of assets) for human rights abuses

* The 2011 PdVSA sanction *did not* hold Venezuelans in poverty. U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude increased in 2012 and GDP hit the highest ever level

* Crude prices collapsed by ~ 60% from 2013 - 2015 and with it the Venezuelan economy, exacerbated by government overspending, debt, waste, destruction of industry, corruption and inflation. See https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/16/how-venezuela-struck-it-poor-oil-energy-chavez/ for a sad history of how Chávismo destroyed their people's mineral wealth

* Economic sanctions were imposed in 2017 by Trump and continued by Biden until 2023. These were boneheaded and immoral and *did do* substantial harm to the already pulverized economy and neither removed Maduro's illegitimate (see coup 2016 - 2017) government nor resulted in democratic reforms

nevent1q…urhq