17 March 2018

Over 150 intellectuals and activists signed an open letter urging the US and Canada to stop their economic sanctions on Venezuela, which are making the country’s economic problems worse. Special UN Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas is a signer and visited Venezuela late last year

Link to interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=39&v=EwM4VhkVVPo

…SHARMINI PERIES: Dr. Zayas, when you first returned from Venezuela last December you publicly stated, “There is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.” That was when there was widespread claims in the international media to the contrary…What made you make that claim?

ALFRED DE ZAYAS: Humanitarian crisis is a term of art. It is a terminus technicus. The problem with hyperboles, the problem with loose use of language, is that you can say the government has failed to protect the human rights of the population, there is a humanitarian crisis; therefore, we should have a humanitarian intervention and a military intervention. That is the problem… It’s not out of the question that a military action could be taken, and that must be averted…Now, humanitarian crisis … I’m not the only one who says that there is no humanitarian crisis. The CEPAL, which is an organization in Latin America that does studies and comparisons of the level of hunger or the level of poverty, etcetera, has said quite clearly there’s no humanitarian crisis. The FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, in its latest reports they list 37 countries where there is a humanitarian crisis. Venezuela is not among them. So I want to move away from overheated rhetoric. I want to help the Venezuelan people, and the Venezuelan people are not being helped by the economic war that is being waged against Venezuela, or also imposed by Canada and some countries of the European Union…