Venezuela is the fifth most sanctioned country in the world, and it has cost the country dearly. 40,000 to 100,000 people are estimated to have died from lack of food, medicines, clean drinking water and other basic necessities caused by unilateral coercive measures ("sanctions") the U.S. has imposed since the Obama Administration.

Congress is now considering Senate Bill 995, which would turn a series of punitive Executive Orders into law, making them harder to remove and further isolating Venezuela from global markets and the international financial system. These restrict Venezuela’s ability to manage debt and conduct financial transactions and impose serious constraints on the oil industry. S.995 would bar Venezuela from receiving loans from the international banks and would punish those institutions if they do grant loans to Venezuela. It would punish any third countries that provide any assistance to the Maduro Administration while blocking Venezuela’s access to any assets it has in the United States. The wording of the bill seeks to designate the Maduro Administration as a terrorist organization and imposes constraints on the gold, financial, energy, shipping, ports and free trade sectors. Venezuela’s economy has been recovering since 2020 from the impacts of existing U.S. sanctions and life has regained a level of normalcy. These sanctions would bring death and despair back to the Venezuelan people.

Tell Congress to vote NO on S.995! Unilateral coercive measures are illegal under the UN Charter and violate the Geneva Conventions against collective punishment of a population. They harm the most vulnerable citizens: children, the sick, the elderly and the poor. We demand a more just foreign policy!

In addition to writing to your senators, please consider calling members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where this bill has been sent! Here is a list of Committee members: https://www.foreign.senate.gov/about/membership. Enough opposition at the committee level can stop the bill from going to the Senate floor. The Capitol switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121.

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