Sanctions issued against Venezuelan leaders this week were meant to punish Caracas’s harsh crackdown on the country’s political opposition. Instead, they may have played right into the hands of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his quest to stoke anti-U.S. sentiment.
It’s not the first time targets have turned sanctions to their advantage. Leaders who find their countries in the economic cross hairs often use them to galvanize nationalistic support, substantiate a further power grab or cast themselves the victim.
It’s not even the first time Venezuela’s done it. In 2011, when the United States sanctioned Venezuela’s state-owned oil company for doing …read more
Source: Foreign Policy
