DONALD TRUMP’S approach to Venezuela proved to be singularly unsuccessful. As president he ratcheted up sanctions against Venezuela’s elected government in an attempt to bring about “regime change.” Over Trump’s time in office, sanctions against Venezuela were widened and intensified into a blockade of its commercial and financial business dealings.

As the blockade tightened, the impact on the lives of ordinary Venezuelans, particularly the poor, the sick and the elderly, became devastating, with far-reaching effects. The Washington-based Centre for Economic and Policy Research calculated they led to more than 40,000 deaths in 2017-18 alone.

The dire impact of sanctions has attracted the UN’s attention. In January 2019, Idriss Jazairy, the UN’s special rapporteur on coercive measures’ impact on human rights, voiced his major concerns about them: “Coercion, whether military or economic, must never be used to seek a change in government in a sovereign state.”