Venezuelans Under Siege

U.S. sanctions block the Venezuelan people from obtaining food and medicine. They resulted in at least 40,000 deaths between mid-2017 and the end of 2018, according to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research – and that was prior to the most severe sanctions, announced in 2019. Venezuelans under Siege (in Spanish, Venezuela frente las sanciones) documents the impacts of the sanctions plus the ways that ordinary Venezuelans are organizing to survive the sanctions and crisis and to build new institutions of participatory socialism.

In a concerted effort to bring regime change to Venezuela, the Trump administration has imposed some of the most severe sanctions imaginable against the country. Blocking oil tankers from exporting its oil, seizing funds in US and UK banks, and taking over Citgo, its state owned oil company in the US. This strangled the petroleum based economy, already weakened by the country’s business class organized political turmoil and sabotage.

Venezuelans under Siege dramatically shows us the impact of all this on the daily lives of ordinary people. But more than that, it also shows how communities have organized themselves to cooperatively meet their basic needs. At once disheartening and inspiring, “Venezuelans under Siege” reveals the resilience of the people in the face of imperialism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7aqGjwry0k&feature=youtu.be&t=2 43 minutes