A NEW THRESHOLD FOR U.S. INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS AGAINST VENEZUELA

Elliott Abrams, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Venezuela, is pressuring the Mexican government to halt a barter arrangement in which the Mexican firm Libre Abordo supplies Venezuela with corn and water trucks in return for oil. The matter is also being investigated by the State Department and the Treasury Department. Until now, the secondary sanctions of the U.S. government have been underpinned by the fact that international transactions take place in dollars and they thus necessarily get channeled through U.S. financial institutions, which are subject to the U.S. government’s jurisdiction. But a barter arrangement does not involve dollars. So what right does Washington have to veto a transaction involving two sovereign nations? Never in non-wartime history has the United States played such an activist role in forcing other nations to comply with U.S. sanctions – doubly outrageous given the current pandemic crisis. The arrogance and cruelty of the Trump administration know no limits.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-usa-probe-venezuela/u-s-asks-mexico-for-help-to-investigate-oil-for-food-pact-with-venezuela-idUSKBN22B3I6