Presentation by Sara Flounders at the UN press conference held on Oct. 30, 2024 and hosted by the Venezuelan Permanent Representative to the United Nations, H.E. Mr. Samuel Moncada. Sara Flounder is a member of the Administrative Committee of UNAC, a leader of the SanctionsKill Campaign and the International Action Center

My thanks from the SanctionsKill Campaign to the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations and to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for hosting this important session today at the United Nations

 We are meeting after a world vote once again condemning the U.S. blockade of Cuba. A vote of 187 to 2 is the world reality. So many countries applauded Cuba’s internationalism.

 It is a great honor to speak on this panel, representing social justice organizations in the U.S. It is a big obligation and responsibility to the people of the world to condemn, denounce and expose this U.S. crime against humanity.  

 US imperialism seeks to dominate the global economy -The policy of “full spectrum dominance” - is a projection of the U.S. national security doctrine for corporate profit. It means depriving all developing countries of the Right to Develop.

 Sanctions – Economic Coercive Measures - are imposed by the United States and its junior partners against countries that resist their agendas. Sanctions are not an alternative to open warfare, but a different form of war that can be as intentionally deadly as dropping bombs. 

 The SanctionsKill Campaign - SanctionsKill.org - is an educational project of many social justice and solidarity organizations using mass petitions, union resolutions, demonstrations, books, webinars to educate the U.S. population about this extreme form of hybrid warfare that operates in the shadows – never discussed, debated and barely known.

 We seek to work with UN bodies and other international bodies to expose this crime against humanity

 The US electorate does not get to vote on imperialism’s endless wars. The outcome of the US presidential election will not change this deadly policy of economic strangulation.

 Mass pressure on many fronts can force through change – to ban this weapon of mass destruction.

 This brutal weapon of economic war intentionally creates chronic shortages of basic necessities. It causes economic dislocation, chaotic hyperinflation, artificial famines, disease, and poverty. In every country, the poorest and the weakest – infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly – suffer the worst impact of sanctions.

 All U.S. imposed sanctions violate international law. They are illegal under the UN Charter and violate the Geneva Conventions against collective punishment.

 Sanctions are imposed by U.S. Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, U.S. State Department and U.S. Congressional resolutions that slide through unannounced. There are UE sanctions resolutions, UK resolutions and by U.S. pressure: UN Security Council resolutions. 

 U.S. sanctions, more than 8,000 measures, impact 1/3 of humanity in more than 40 countries. They are a crime against humanity used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements and provide economic and military support to pro-US right-wing forces.

 The US economic dominance and its 800+ military bases worldwide demand all other countries participate in acts of economic strangulation. They must end all normal trade relations, otherwise they risk having Wall Street’s guns pointed at them. 

 The banks and financial institutions who are responsible for the devastation of our communities at home, drive the plunder of countries abroad.

As our book is titled: “Sanctions are a Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy”. 

The intention is to smash all normal economic life.

 Venezuela is the fifth most sanctioned country in the world, and it has cost the country dearly. 946 sanctions! 40,000 to 100,000 people are estimated to have died from lack of food, medicines, clean drinking water and other basic necessities, imposed since the Obama Administration. The Biden Administration has now imposed new, harsher sanctions on Venezuela for the crime of carrying out “free and fair elections.” 

 The sanctions on Gaza, since the population dared to overwhelmingly elect the Hamas slate, the Movement of Islamic Resistance, in 2006 operates consciously with Israel to strangle the whole population. This is collective punishment.

 Sanctions, combined with a torrent of U.S. provided weapons, has reached a level of genocidal violence against civilians in Gaza that outrages the whole world. U.S. sanctions against Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen brutally impact all the economies of West Asia. They stretch to Afghanistan, blocking all development after decades of U.S. wars.

Sanctions stretch to Myanmar, Laos and the country with oldest sanctions: the Democratic Republic of Korea, since 1950.

 Cuba, in this hemisphere, is strangled for over 60 years. Now Nicaragua is in the cross hairs. Impoverished Haiti remains under sanctions.

 The largest number of sanctions countries are in Africa, countries although resource rich, who are already strangled by centuries of colonial looting. From Libya, Central African Republic, Congo – DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe sanctions block the Right to Develop.

 They harm the most vulnerable citizens: children, the sick, the elderly and the poor

 The world is changing!

 The countries of world, for their very survival, ignored U.S. demands and thousands of US / EU / British sanctions on Russia of wheat, grains, fertilizer, gas and oil. 

Biden declared there’d be regime change and Russia would totally collapse in weeks. But the sanctions boomeranged.

 The thousands of new threats, sanctions and 100% tariffs on China leaves the Global South with a steady determination to develop alternatives.

 The BRICS opening document last week condemned sanctions as illegal and unlawful. I quote from their statement: "We are deeply concerned about the disruptive effect of unlawful, unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions, on the world economy, international trade, and the achievement of the sustainable development goals."

 Now, just emerging, are commodities trading platform within BRICS, along with cross-border payment instruments. This gives hope for the future.

The people of the whole world have a right to demand the end of all the restrictive, prohibitive measures. They must be rallied to speak and to act.

 In closing, we condemn the horrendous crimes committed against the Palestinian people, the belts of fire, the bombing refugee tents, schools, every hospital deliberately destroyed, all with total U.S. support, funding and endless supply of weapons. 

 It confirms that there are no limits to the crimes imperialist powers will commit against defenseless civilians. The blocking now of UNRWA food and medicines to all Palestinians in occupied lands confirms that international law will be totally blocked with full US support 

 U.S. Sanctions belongs in the Dust Bin of History! Along with, U.S. supported settler colonial regimes, such as Israel, wrecking such massive destruction in West Asia. This is the future…

 Cooperation and development among all the people of the world is the only way forward.