 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Friends of Latin America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday at 4.30pm Pacific, 7.30pm Eastern on CodePink's YouTube channel. Tonight we include Sanctions Kill as a special edition broadcast partner. Before introducing today's program and our featured guests, I'd like you to meet my friend and guest co-host Margaret Flowers of popular resistance and Sanctions Kill as well as the Embassy Protection Collective. She'll be joining me in conversation tonight. She'll be leading this episode with me. So welcome Margaret. Thank you, Terry. It's great to be with you. Thank you for inviting me. Good evening, everyone. And it's a pleasure to meet you, Vice Minister Castillo. So I want to explain to the audience that our guest this evening is Venezuelan Vice Minister William Castillo. He's going to be talking to us tonight about Venezuelans anti-blocade law. And he will be speaking in Spanish. So for those of you who want the English translation, I'm going to put in the YouTube chat. The link to the Zoom we are using tonight so that you can go there and turn on the interpretation and hear the Spanish to to English. So give me just a minute to put that in in the YouTube chat. And, and then I'll introduce our program and our guest. So give me just a minute, and I'll give you that link. So for those of you who want the Spanish to English translation, I just posted the Zoom link in the YouTube live chat so you can move over to Zoom. If you prefer the to hear it with the translation. And so now I'm going to go ahead and introduce the program and our guest to all of you. So let me give you a little bit of background before we start to combat the US economic war on Venezuela, a new strategy was unveiled on September 29 2020 by present by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. This was this legislation was called the anti-blocade constitutional law for national development and guarantee of human rights or anti-blocade law for short. It was approved in a session of the National Constituent Assembly, known as the ANC in Spanish on October 8 2020. The ANC has served as an interim legislative body after the very conservative some would say hard right wing led National Assembly was declared in contempt for illegal election practices and other violations. In May of 2021 Venezuelans National Assembly ratified the lot. The current National Assembly was elected are those sitting in that body now we're elected in December of 2020. This by the United States Canada and its European allies against Venezuela includes US seizure of Sitco the oil refinery and other Venezuelan properties, the withholding of the country's gold and money reserves by Britain and Portugal and severe and a severe sanctions regime. The sanctions or more correctly known as unilateral coercive measures unilateral being the key word have cut off Venezuelans ability to import spare parts and critical chemicals for the oil and mining industries, particularly imports from the United States with its dominance in oil technology. One of the anti blockade law is a legal framework to guarantee foreign investments and shield economic agreements from US sanctions and sabotage with countries that are defying the sanctions to trade with Venezuela investments by domestic entities will be allowed as well. With affected economic improvements the government will be able to raise the real wages of workers pensions for seniors and benefits for the population. The government can also strengthen vital social programs such as the clap food boxes healthcare education and more the country's infrastructure, such as water electricity gas transport and telecommunications can be really rebuild excuse me rehabilitated as well. Today, we are honored to be joining conversation Venezuelan Vice Minister William Castillo. Minister Castillo is responsible for implementing the anti blockade law. He will be as I mentioned before he will be speaking in Spanish. You can go to the zoom link posted in the YouTube chat to hear that English translation. So this evening Margaret and I are very pleased to welcome Vice Minister Castillo for a very interesting and informative conversation. Thank you Minister Castillo. Thank you Terry. Well, I want to thank this invitation in the name of personal but also of our government, the Bolivarian government, the people of Venezuela that gives us the opportunity to communicate with sectors in the United States that are interested in knowing more about the situation in Venezuela, which is, as we know, deeply affected by the distortions that the media, the news agencies do of the Venezuelan reality. We know that the peoples and the social organizations of many countries are systematically bombarded, so to speak, in some way with lies, with fake news, with false truths about the reality of Venezuela. Thank you very much for this invitation and well, willing to talk to you, to answer your questions and give you all the information that is possible. I also want to say that I love the name of the program. I love the name of the program of the space, I did not know it. It seems very irreverent to me. So, well, we are ready to clarify many things in that context of the name of the program. What the fuck in Venezuela? So, thank you so much. I think, and Margaret, please join in. I think maybe it'd be best to tell the audience a little bit about yourself and the specific role you have in the government at this point in time. And then let's talk specifically about what the anti-blockade lot is. Okay. Yes. Well, Teri, you made a very good summary in your presentation about our law. First of all, you have to say that an anti-blockade law can only arise in a blocked country. There are few anti-blockade laws and I think it's the only one in the world that openly, explicitly adopts the name of anti-blockade law. Why? Because it is important that you know it. Venezuela, since 2014, has suffered a set of actions and attacks, to its economy, to its political system, to its population, and even to its territory. And these actions have been directed from the United States by the governments of Barack Obama, initially, and especially from Donald Trump, that have imposed in Venezuela two laws approved by my party in Congress, a law in 2014 and another law in 2019, seven executive orders, what you call executive orders, which affect public finances, the oil industry, the public economic sector, they are measures that block our resources, our money that is in international banks. Venezuela has suffered blockages of more than 40 international banks in the last seven years. Currently, there are almost $6 billion blocked in banks, that $6 billion would not serve us to pay the vaccination of all our population to solve many problems that we have in public services. We have $1,000,000 frozen in the Bank of England, gold and monetary. The CISCO, a very well-known company in the United States, was pushed through an executive order. Donald Trump was confiscated, he was transferred to control of the United States, and the United States gave control of that company to a Venezuelan politician, who self-proclaimed president of the Republic, and that the US government recognized in January 2019. That is, Venezuela has been attacked on all fronts. All of our consulates and diplomats in the US territory have been assaulted by these politicians supported by the US public force, even by the Secret Service of the United States, in the case of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. We have been expelled from buildings, offices, our diplomatic officials have also been attacked. For example, our ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Samuel Moncada, has been prevented from moving in a radius of over 60 kilometers on the island of Manhattan, that is, he is practically kidnapped on the island of Manhattan because he has no mobility, violating the convention of Vienna on diplomatic immunity. In short, Venezuela has suffered a set of attacks in seven years, and those attacks have severely deteriorated life in Venezuela. Without a doubt, they have had a very hard effect on our population, the mortality rate has increased, the infant maternity of the newborn children, because the resources for hospitals have been reduced, because many companies, particularly the United States and Europe, deny us the resources to repair medical equipment. They have denied us the contracts of services for maintenance of medical equipment. They have blocked us from paying for vaccines such as vaccines for vixenia or malaria, sarampion, which are other diseases that he needs vaccines every year. So, well, our people have suffered very hard impacts. They have denied our women, for example, through the companies that left the country, 16 large pharmaceutical companies in the world left the production of medicines in Venezuela in a period of two years. So, of course, of course, our country has suffered the attacks, the consequences, and that has been recognized by the doctor, among others, the doctor Alena Dujan, who is a special rapporteur of the United Nations for the issue of unilateral coercive measures. She has said in her report to visit our country, she has noticed the impacts and the suffering of our people, and she has said to the United Nations and has asked the United States and other countries to raise the sanctions against our country. So, of course, I tell all this to be able to reach the law, because if this had not happened, we would not need an anti-block law. And basically, what does the law do? The President of the Republic, last year, after contacting the gravity of everything that was happening, he decided to introduce the constituent body of Venezuela. Okay, thank you. Vice Minister, that's the way. Yes, you can hear it. Thank you. This anti-block law has a special character and allows you to take exceptional measures, special measures to address the blockade. For example, to give a specific example, and you, Teri, mentioned it briefly. Many companies, including American companies from different sectors, from the energy sector, from the commercial sector, from the technological sector, want to do business in Venezuela. They want to work legitimately in a country like any other country in the world. But they are afraid that due to the executive orders, if they open a business in Venezuela, they may be affected or sanctioned or persecuted, even confiscated their money in the financial system, because that's how the executive orders are established. So, this law is established, a protection system of identity. It is established as a legal protection system. Venezuela makes a commitment to accompany any company that works in Venezuela that is affected, to accompany them in their legal defense processes, but also to protect their identity so that they can do and work with Venezuela. It is established in a set of incentives and facilities to companies that want to work with Venezuela, because basically we are looking for that law, or we are looking for that law, to activate economic sectors that are deprived. For example, the oil sector, the gold sector, the iron sector and other minerals, the agricultural sector, which also has a great interest in developing agricultural production. Venezuela has more than three-quarters of its territory, which are susceptible to agricultural projects. And because of these sanctions, these projects are paralyzed. So, the first goal of this law is to be able to look for ways, conjunctions with the private sector, with other governments that have been maintained, allies of Venezuela that have supported Venezuela. For example, the Russian Federation, the Chinese government, that have practically sold to cost the vaccines to Venezuela, that have delivered medical teams to Venezuela to help in this situation, we are also looking to stimulate the development of these economic relations. And the second part of the law, also mentioned very well in Terry, is where the resources go. The law is a law to guarantee national development and to guarantee human rights, that have been violated, the right to food, the right to health, the right to a free sexuality on the part of women, because the importation of medicines or treatments was also attacked, for example, for the gynecological tests of Venezuelan women and gynecological treatments. This also affected women's rights and, in some way, the resources that are obtained by these special agreements, will go, first of all, to improve the income of the Venezuelan family, of the Venezuelan workers and workers, to strengthen public services that have also been reduced, the electric energy service that has been attacked, water services, transportation, telecommunications, to support the income, the recovery of the consumption of the Venezuelan family and thus aim to improve the development of the national production economy. So it is a law within an economic strategy, within an economic plan. We had to do the law precisely to offer guarantees, to offer that the Venezuelan state is committed to that strategic line with its economy and with all the public or private economic actors in the world who want to participate in the economic reconstruction of Venezuela. And we are already doing it in the middle of the sanctions. I must say that, to finish this part, I must say that although the Biden government began in January of this year, it has not increased the sanctions, it has not reduced them either, it has maintained a kind of freezing of the sanctions, but it has reduced the aggressive rhetoric against Venezuela. Certainly, the daily rhetoric that the Trump government had, the daily threat, and it is known that the threat is an essential element because it distances trust in an economy. The Biden government has reduced this rhetoric, although it has clearly not been committed in a process of normalization of diplomatic relations that has been requested on several occasions by the Venezuelan president. We have said that we are willing to directly talk to the United States, to resume diplomatic relations that are in this broken moment, and to return to relations of respect between two sovereign states. We believe that this is the only condition that Venezuela has set to normalize its relations again. Well, although I repeat that the sanctions have not increased, they have not decreased either. The way that we expect that in the United States, in that reflection that has been publicly said to be about the sanctions, it can find a way and it can return to international law respecting the sovereignty of Venezuela and recognizing the right that Venezuela has to economically develop in a free way. Right. All of those are so many important points that you made, Vice Minister. And I think it's important for the people who are viewing this program to understand very clearly that what the United States is doing, these unilateral coercive economic measures or UCMs, we call them sanctions, are illegal under international law. So everything the United States is doing in Venezuela, including political intervention, military aggression, all of this is illegal under international law. So Venezuela has every right to use whatever tools it has within its power to fight back against this. And it's important to understand how devastating this economic blockade is on the country of Venezuela, as you've mentioned some. But, you know, Elena Dujan, the UN rapporteur, said that Venezuela is currently operating on 1% of the income it had prior to the sanctions. So this is a country that provides free health care, education, has a food program, an incredible housing program. Venezuela has a population of 32 million people. The United States has more than 320 million. Venezuela has already built and housed 3.7 million families. They built 3.7 million units of social housing. We in the United States have less than one million units with 10 times the population. So tremendous work that Venezuela has been doing. You mentioned the fact that businesses won't, you know, fear US retaliation if they do business with Venezuela. This is a well-founded fear as we've seen companies like Rosneft, the Russian oil company targeted by the United States for doing business with Venezuela. Dominated, you know, financial institutions that are dominated by the United States have also refused to process financial transactions. So a well-known one is when Venezuela recently was purchasing vaccines to COVID-19 through the UN's COVAX program, which is designed to help countries like Venezuela. UBS, the Swiss bank would not process the financial transaction so that Venezuela, which had the money, could not pay for those vaccines. This is just some of the tangible ways that these UCMs impact people in Venezuela. And so my, you know, and also blocking investment in industries when I was there in 2019 and met with the person who was the head of procuring medical and pharmaceuticals, I spoke about how the pharmaceutical industry was thriving prior to that in Venezuela, but because they couldn't get the precursors of things that needed to produce the pharmaceuticals, really decimated that industry with, as you mentioned, same thing with agriculture, getting the inputs, keeping the oil company, you know, refineries running, getting the equipment for that. All of this is blocked by this economic blockade. So one thing that other countries have been trying to do is to work around these institutions that are dominated by the United States, so finding alternative ways of doing business outside of these institutions. Is that something that Venezuela has been looking at? How are you able to bypass the U.S. dominated, you know, financial institutions and do business with these other countries? Yes, well, a part of the processes that have been implemented by the President's blockade agent, Nicolá Modro has said it with a very clear expression for us, perhaps they are not so understandable outside, but he has said, well, in silence, there has to be some of these operations. In silence because many times if we announce that we are going to do something in some sector, with some company, well, immediately an order, a measure of the office of active control, the OFAC, and punish that sector or that company. So that has had to be done. Many of these operations, let's say, under a protection of confidentiality, seeking to de-serize some operations, we have had to expand our supply chain and sometimes what was done before, notice that this is very important because, in addition, when we can negotiate something, it costs us more because we have to look for several intermediaries, several companies who have to go through a chain of processes to be able to acquire, for example, a medical team or some raw material, something that any country does it directly, for example, in an international visitation and contracts directly with the companies, then a number of resources is saved to give them an example. We, for example, we had to buy from different companies, from different parts of the world, medicines in several countries, but what does the country tell us that officially it cannot be sold to us? It has to be sold to a third private company, it is the one who seeks the way to do it. This is unusual in any nation, in a country that we talk about free trade, right? We have denounced the United States before not only the criminal court, we have denounced them before the World Trade Organization for the commercial restrictions that they are putting and well, the United States, what it has done is bet that the World Trade Organization is going to be in Venezuela. We, at the beginning of this year, have taken the United States before the instances of the World Trade Organization and simply with the power of veto that it has in different organizations, the United States prevented it from being debated because it is evident that there is an affectation to the international right, which is illegal, but that besides being illegal to violate the rights of companies and the rights of the States, we are talking about the civil population, we are talking about the general population of Venezuela. They are not measures, as sometimes it is said, that they are going to affect a employee or the president of Venezuela. Today, we have to repeat in this space that President Trump put a price on the head of the president of Venezuela. How can we talk about an international legality where the president of a country spends 15 million dollars on the life of the president of a sovereign state? It cannot be talked about but a war policy. A country that puts a price on the head of another president practically is telling him that he is in war. And what the United States has done is declare an invisible war for Venezuela. A multi-form war, a silent war. We say that every measure that dictates the fact that it is a bomb. But these bombs go over the salaries, they go over public services. They are bombs against refineries, they are bombs against food, against the health of the Venezuelan people. And that is why we have to look for this type of mechanism that I repeat, some of them cannot even be informed openly about the world because we could risk it. We have made a lot of effort to strengthen the economic alliances and that is public. I do not say anything that is not known with countries that are willing to face the blockade. Among other things because it also suffers from blockades like the case of Cuba, like the case of Iran, like the case of Russia, although they are not sanctions against their country, there are many sanctions against Russian companies, against the main Russian oil company, there are sanctions against Chinese technology companies, Chinese oil companies, Turkish companies have been sanctioned, there are companies from 26 different countries including the United States, Colombia, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland who have tried to do business in Venezuela and the United States in sanctions lists by the United States. So that is the reality. Margarito Avesi is also something very important that I would like to expand, to clarify a little. In other countries they have gone to take similar measures. Each country is looking for its way, its way of facing the blockade. The Chinese People's Republic promulgated two months ago a law of anti-sanctions. Only because of the Chinese economic weight it has another charge. China has said to the United States that any sanction against a Chinese company will be contested with reciprocity against American companies. So of course, because of the Chinese economic weight it can dictate an anti-sanction measure of that type of Venezuela, it does not have the economic weight to dictate reciprocity. Because we do not influence the international trade. We do not control the banking transactions system where we were excluded. Then Cuba also has a law of defense against the blockade. And the Islamic Republic of Iran also has some measures that it has taken to seek to overcome very difficult impacts that the blockade has had and more than 40 years has been sanctioned by the United States. So the most important thing here is that the international experts, the five United Nations relatives directed a letter a month ago to Secretary Blinken asking for explanations about sanctions denouncing, for example, the death of children who were going to be operated in Italy, as in Argentina. And those children, the operations of those children were paid by the Venezuelan state. And by freezing the Citgo company and freezing the financial resources of Citgo the operations of those children and several of those children have died and others are still at risk of dying because the freezing of that money was asked to pay for operations to save the lives of children. So there is already a conscience, we believe in the world, of the criminal nature and deeply inhuman of these policies and we continue to denounce them to the whole world. Yeah, that's an important point that people need to understand. It's why we call our campaign sanctions kill because they are just as deadly as they are killing bombs. The Center for Economic and Policy Research did a study just looking at 2017 to 2018 a one-year period and found that the U.S.'s economic war contributed to the deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans 40,000 people in one year. And as you mentioned, people being stranded I know that hundreds of patients with cancer who have been sent outside of Venezuela they need are stranded because Venezuela doesn't have the mechanism to pay for their care. These are real human costs and so often in the United States we hear about these humanitarian exceptions and they don't work. As you said, the Elena Duhand found that our report that we did recently on the impacts and consequences of U.S. sanctions found the same thing. These humanitarian exceptions don't work and so people are directly impacted. I know we don't have much time left so I do want to say to our audience particularly people living in the United States we have a responsibility to demand that the Biden administration reestablish diplomatic relationship with Venezuela there's no reason why we don't have that and demand that we immediately end the sanctions. This is something that the president can do he has the power to lift this economic blockade which is actually putting us in the United States because of the level of criminal liability because they are illegal. So we need to make these two demands to reestablish diplomatic relationship and to end these economic measures immediately. I just want to follow up on that comment. It's so true the silence of sanctions is misleading to U.S. citizens as a form of warfare. We're not dropping bombs on the nation there's no troops on the ground it's out of sight it's out of mind and in my opinion and I'm sure in Margaret's as well that makes them even more dangerous the silence of them and the out of sight out of mind philosophy behind them makes them even more murderous and more dangerous. One of the things you mentioned earlier Minister Castillo was that the Biden administration's narrative foreign policy narrative in general I would argue but towards Venezuela has changed or is less aggressive in tone and in vocabulary but in practice is the same. It's not advanced but it's not retreated in any way shape or form it is the same as the Trump policy and I think that's really important for our audience to understand that that just because the tone has changed doesn't mean the practice has changed. It's just a new face and a new voice but the same policy. And so regarding this US policy towards Venezuela and particularly in relation to the Venezuela dialogue that's been occurring here in Mexico City since August I think you just finished round three this past week. What do you see coming out of this dialogue is a lifting of sanctions? I mean I know that's probably the number one request but there's two things specific to the dialogue if you can comment on them that'd be great I understand if you can't. What the hope is with the United States and also specific to individuals and assets affected by the sanctions can you comment on the Alex Saab case and where he stands at this point I know he has still not been allowed to be part of the dialogue team the government's dialogue team here he's still sitting in prison in couple of things. Whatever you can comment and I know it's a quiet subject in the media right now the dialogue and with good reason. Yes, with pleasure. Thank you very much for those two questions first of all because when I say that it's affected the Venezuelan people and it's also affected the Venezuelan business and the Alex Saab case is a very important case for us because Alex Saab was invested in diplomatic immunity precisely because he traveled around the world trying to get a business quality but as a representative special envoy from Venezuela to seek the way to get food so he is being paid his work in favor of the Venezuelan people and that is absolutely compatible as it is in all parts of the world that he was a businessman that at the same time could support let's say with that diplomatic immunity he could move around the world precisely because of the attacks to the food sector you have to remember that two Mexican companies were broken by selling food to Venezuela under a mode that in theory is authorized by the sanctions which is oil for food that is, these companies received diesel special fuel from Venezuela and got food and were taken to the break between the Peña Nieto government and the government of Donald Trump for working with Venezuela and that case Alex Saab that has been incorporated by President Nicolás Maduro has incorporated Alex Saab who is a businessman who is in Mexico and we have only introduced a letter to the facilitator who is the government of Norway to the countries that are the Kingdom of the Low Countries and the Russian Federation we have given him a letter where the request is made for the incorporation of Alex Saab to our counterpart of the opposition so it is a point for us of the negotiation agenda and we will continue to fight for the human rights of Alex Saab that have been violated in more than 400 days of kidnapping by the government of each green without an accusation signed or an order of capture without an order of capture and that takes us to the dialogue I have the privilege and the responsibility to be part of the Venezuelan team of our delegation in the dialogue I can ratify what has been the public position of our president, our government in the sense that the dialogue must be produced by the government of Venezuela and significant in the rising of the sanctions and in the recovery of the resources and the active of Venezuela evidently we are going to a dialogue thinking in the economy thinking about the Venezuelan and we are a dialogue and a negotiation willing to advance in other issues that are priority of the opposition always and when the US which is the patrocinator of this extremist opposition is committed together to give clear and significant steps what can never be accepted by the government of Venezuela is a conditioning that is to say that Venezuela has to take measures before the sanctions are raised it is a negotiation process and in every negotiation precisely the parts must show will to advance in a coordinated way in the agenda that each one has set what I can say about it is that we insist on the economic agenda we have set with clarity the need to get resources first to close the vaccination cycle that is quite advanced I take the opportunity to say it Venezuela with its own resources we aspire to close before October November the massive vaccination of 50% and until the end of the year 70% of our population will be vaccinated with the two doses and that has been done with Venezuelan resources and with support from some nations but they are still requiring resources to improve hospitals for operations for teams so our priorities are to be able to recover our resources to normalize the economic guarantees of the people of Venezuela and in that sense we are open to the agenda to contain all the measures our priority is the people of Venezuela and so we will continue to defend it and we hope that in this third round we can make specific announcements it will depend on the political will of Mr. Baide's government which I repeat is the opposition's patrocinator and therefore we assume that any measure that they plan should have the support of their patrocinator we are a sovereign government it does not patrocinate us and they support us but our own people and in that quality that we are talking about so we hope that in the next few days and in the next round we can advance on that agenda it is an honor to have you with us this evening a really valuable conversation very informative for myself for Margaret I'm sure as well and certainly for our audience is there anything in closing that you would like to say? Thank you so much Margaret do you want to add anything? Just if people would like to learn more about these unilateral coercive measures please visit the sanctionskill.org website www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org www.cdc.org country by country that talk about the specifics of the impacts of the US's economic war on those countries. So, you know, I want to add to our demands that we need to be pushing out there loudly and clearly. So, reestablish diplomatic relationships and economic war and free Alex Saab. So, thank you very much again, Vice Minister, for being here with us this evening. It was so informative and we agree that this dialogue is very necessary. We have so much to learn from the people of Venezuela and so much responsibility because of our actions of our own government. And this really is very helpful to us. Thank you. So, thank you everyone. I want to remind our audience. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. And to our audience, you've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean CodePink's weekly YouTube program. We broadcast every Wednesday evening. I'm glad you find it a rebellious title because that we are rebellious. We broadcast every Wednesday evening on CodePink YouTube live, 7.30 p.m. Eastern. And also, you can now find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and wherever you catch your podcasts. So, thank you. I should also remind you to be sure to listen to CodePink radio every Thursday morning, 11 a.m. Eastern on WBAI out in New York City, simulcasting out of Washington, D.C. on WPFW. And be sure to catch Margaret's clearing the fog as well, her popular resistance program. So, lots of tools to retrieve information. So, good night, everyone. Again, thank you so much, Minister Castillo, an honor and a pleasure. Thank you, Margaret. Always fun to do these programs with you. Really appreciate your time and your friendship. Thank you, Teri. I agree. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Okay.