Sanctions imposed by the United States have had a debilitating impact on Venezuela’s crude exports from which the country got most of its foreign currency revenues.
Citing the impact of this on the economy, President Nicolás Maduro tweeted on Wednesday that the losses have all but wiped out Venezuela’s foreign currency earnings.
“In six years of persecution and criminal blockade against Venezuela, the losses reach 99% of the volume of income in foreign currency,” Maduro said.
Maduro delivered the draft Anti-Blockade Law to the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) for approval on September 29. This seeks to provide the State with the institutional and legal capacities to face the economic blockade. He assured that in six years they went from receiving 56,000 million dollars to less than 400 million dollars.
“This undoubtedly means an unprecedented collapse of our economy and a cunning attack on people’s lives,” he said in the tweet.
For more than a decade, the United States has imposed sanctions in response to activities of the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan individuals. In response to what it says is the “authoritarian leadership” of Maduro, the Trump Administration has significantly expanded sanctions.
As of August 20, 2020, the Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on more than 150 Venezuelan or Venezuelan connected individuals, and the State Department has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 individuals and their families.
