Articles by Mark Weisbrot
We found 34 results.
The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions: Event Summary
Francisco Rodríguez and Mark Weisbrot | Center for Economic and Policy Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2023
23 May 2023 – On 19 May, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) brought together leading experts in the study of economic sanctions to help to answer a critical, but often-ignored, question: What are the human consequences of US economic sanctions?
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Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs | CEPR-Center for Economic and Policy Research – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
April 2019 – This paper looks at some of the most important impacts of the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US government since August of 2017. It finds that most of the impact of these sanctions has not been on the government but on the civilian population.
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Behind the Scenes in Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot - U.S. News & World Report,
12 Mar 2018
3 Mar 2018 – The Trump administration is intensifying its regime change efforts to potentially include torpedoing Venezuela’s presidential election.
→ read full articleGermany Is Bluffing on Greece
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
15 Jun 2015
Berlin is not going to force Athens out of the eurozone anytime soon. The people primarily responsible for Greece’s deep and prolonged depression and high unemployment are pushing policies that would extend the crisis and worsen its impact on those who have suffered the most.
→ read full articleObama’s Cuba Legacy May Run through Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
8 Jun 2015
The Cubans made it clear to Obama that normalization of relations would be limited if Washington was unwilling to normalize relations with Venezuela. The president has taken steps to normalize relations with Caracas but faces resistance at home.
→ read full articleDestroying the Greek Economy in Order to Save It
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
13 Apr 2015
Blackmail is actually an understatement of what the troika is doing to Greece. It is trying to harm the Greek economy in order to pressure the new Greek government to agree to its demands. Recent European Central Bank actions are not about money or fiscal sustainability but about politics. European authorities are using dirty tactics to bring Greece to heel.
→ read full articleBreaking News: The New York Times Reports on What the Rest of the Western Hemisphere Thinks about the Conflict between the US and Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot – Center for Economic and Policy Research,
23 Mar 2015
13 Mar 2015 – In a significant change in reporting at The New York Times, the newspaper yesterday became the first major news outlet in the English language media to report on what the rest of the governments in the Western Hemisphere think of U.S. policy toward Venezuela.
→ read full articleHard Choices: Hillary Clinton Admits Role in Honduran Coup Aftermath
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera America,
6 Oct 2014
Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy.
→ read full articleMuch Different from What You’ve Heard – The Story of Venezuela’s Protests
Mark Weisbrot - CounterPunch,
5 May 2014
The strategy of Venezuela’s extreme right is to make the country ungovernable, so as to gain by force what they have been unable to win in 18 elections over the past 15 years. It is clear from the statements of Brazil’s former president Lula da Silva and current president Dilma Rousseff that they have no illusions about what is going on in Venezuela.
→ read full articleThe Truth about Venezuela: A Revolt of the Well-Off, Not a ‘Terror Campaign’
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Mar 2014
John Kerry’s rhetoric is divorced from the reality on the ground, where life goes on – even at the barricades. It’s not just the poor who are abstaining – in Caracas, it’s almost everyone outside of a few rich areas like Altamira. The only place where the opposition seems to be garnering broad support is Washington.
→ read full articleUS Support for Regime Change in Venezuela Is a Mistake
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Feb 2014
The US push to topple the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro once again pits Washington against South America. On Sunday [16 Feb 2014], the Mercosur governments (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela) released a statement and described “the recent violent acts” in Venezuela as “attempts to destabilize the democratic order”. They made it abundantly clear where they stood.
→ read full articleNAFTA: 20 Years of Regret for Mexico
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Jan 2014
Mexico’s growth has been weak since the ‘free trade’ deal was signed, and it missed out on the region’s poverty reduction. It was 20 years ago that the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico was implemented.
→ read full articleThe Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty Is the Complete Opposite of ‘Free Trade’
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
25 Nov 2013
The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It’s a win for corporations.
→ read full article(Castellano) Los Gobiernos Sudamericanos Deben Apoyar el Derecho de los Hondureños a la Soberanía y Elecciones Libres
Mark Weisbrot - Rebelión,
4 Nov 2013
Como señaló el presidente Rafael Correa de Ecuador en 2009, el golpe de Washington en Honduras también fue una amenaza para la región, así como lo es su colaboración con el gobierno resultante para prevenir que se den elecciones democráticas.
→ read full articleWhy the US Demonises Venezuela’s Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
8 Oct 2012
Venezuela is about to hold impeccably free and fair elections [7 Oct 2012]. Yet the US treats it as a dictatorship. Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela’s “dictatorship” a few weeks ago: “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.” Washington is still spending millions of dollars within the country in addition to unknown covert funds – to undermine, delegitimise, and destabilise democracy in Venezuela.
→ read full articleUN Should Get Rid of Cholera Epidemic That It Brought to Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – Center for Economic and Policy Research,
13 Aug 2012
Besides bringing the cholera epidemic to Haiti and wasting billions of dollars, [UN] troops have committed serious abuses, from killings of civilians to sexual abuse.
→ read full articleHow the European Central Bank Came To Control the Fate of the World Economy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
6 Aug 2012
World stock markets and European bond markets rallied last week in response to three words that came from the mouth of Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank: that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. What does this all mean to the average person in the eurozone, or in Spain, where unemployment just hit a record 24.6%?
→ read full articleLatin America: How the US Has Allied With the Forces of Reaction
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
2 Jul 2012
It was three years ago this week [29 Jun 2012] that the Honduran military launched an assault on the home of President Mel Zelaya, kidnapped him, and flew him out of the country. The Obama administration knew in advance and did not condemn the coup. The US has lost most of its influence in the vast majority of the Americas over the past decade. It is only a matter of time before even poor countries like Honduras and Paraguay gain their rights to democracy and self-determination.
→ read full articleU.S. Government Still Not Ready for Democracy in Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Mar 2012
Haitians were ready again in 2000 when they elected Aristide a second time with 90 percent of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton’s Deputy Special Envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the U.S. Congress in 2010: “Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.”
→ read full articleInternational Community Fails in Haiti, Again
Mark Weisbrot – Al Jazeera,
12 Sep 2011
The cholera outbreak in Haiti may have been caused by UN peacekeepers. How is it that more than 6,200 people have died in Haiti from cholera in just the past 10 months, and yet resources to fight the disease were reduced earlier this year before the rainy season, which predictably led to an upsurge in infections and fatalities? Furthermore, this is a country where international donors had pledged $5.6bn since the January 2010 earthquake.
→ read full articleLatin America Shakes Off the US Yoke
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
11 Apr 2011
The current spat with Ecuador is symptomatic of Washington’s failure to grasp that it no longer exercises regional hegemony.
→ read full articleHaiti’s Election: a Travesty of Democracy
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
24 Jan 2011
The OAS’s attempt to rehabilitate a fatally flawed process would be laughable if it were not a tragic injustice for Haitians.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks’ Lesson on Haiti
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
20 Dec 2010
What the US embassy cables reveal about Washington’s malign influence should make Latin American nations quit the UN force…. This logic is why they got rid of Aristide – who was much to the left of Preval – and won’t let him back in the country. This is why Washington funded the recent “elections” that excluded Haiti’s largest political party, the equivalent of shutting out the Democrats and Republicans in the United States. And this is why Minustah is still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army – which Aristide had abolished – as a repressive force.
→ read full articleEcuador’s Correa Haunted by Honduras
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
4 Oct 2010
This was a coup attempt – encouraged by Washington’s shameful support for the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya last year. In June of last year, when the Honduran military overthrew the social-democratic government of Manuel Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador took it personally. “We have intelligence reports that say that after Zelaya, I’m next,” said Correa.
→ read full article“The People of Greece Are Fighting for the Whole of Europe”
Democracy Now! - Tariq Ali and Mark Weisbrot,
17 May 2010
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have approved a nearly $1 trillion package to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spilling beyond its borders into the rest of the eurozone. Stocks surged in Europe, Asia and the United States Monday after EU leaders agreed to a $960 billion package to contain Greece’s financial troubles. Meanwhile, the austerity measures demanded by the IMF and the European Union as a condition of their loan are continuing to exact their toll. Greece’s two main unions have continued to hold protests against the reforms. In a statement, one of the unions said, “The crisis should be paid by…all those who looted public finances.” Last week nearly 100,000 people participated in a mass demonstration and a twenty-four-hour general strike against the austerity measures.
→ read full articleLATIN AMERICA’S PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
26 Feb 2010
With the creation of a new regional organisation, Latin America is emerging as a power bloc with its own interests and agenda. Latin America took another historic step forward this week with the creation of a new regional organization of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The United States and Canada were excluded. The increasing […]
→ read full articleTHE US GAME IN LATIN AMERICA
Mark Weisbrot – The Guardian,
1 Feb 2010
US interference in the politics of Haiti and Honduras is only the latest example of its long-term manipulations in Latin America.When I write about US foreign policy in places such as Haiti or Honduras, I often get responses from people who find it difficult to believe that the US government would care enough about these […]
→ read full articlePROPOSED AMNESTY SERVES TO WHITEWASH HONDURAN COUP
Mark Weisbrot – The Center for Ecomomic and Policy Research,
10 Jan 2010
Vote expected next week to absolve Honduran Military of crimes, even as murders continue.The international community should offer no support for planned amnesty for the perpetrators of the Honduran coup, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said today. Noting that both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders previously agreed […]
→ read full articleMEDIA BATTLES IN LATIN AMERICA NOT ABOUT “FREE SPEECH”
Mark Weisbrot - The Guardian,
10 Jan 2010
For at least a month now in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media. It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of the time, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for “defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism.” […]
→ read full articleLATIN AMERICA’S ECONOMIC REBELS
Mark Weisbrot - Center for Economic and Policy Research,
1 Nov 2009
Ecuador, Bolivia Show that Even Small Developing Countries Can Pursue Independent Economic Policies, Stand Up for Their Rights, and WinAmong the conventional wisdom that we hear every day in the business press is that developing countries should bend over backwards to create a friendly climate for foreign corporations, follow orthodox (neoliberal) macroeconomic policy advice and […]
→ read full articleWHEN THE MEDIA IS A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM
Mark Weisbrot,
24 Oct 2009
What kind of a public debate can we have on the most vital issues of the day in the United States? A lot depends on the media, which determines how these issues are framed for most people.Take the war in Afghanistan, which has been subject to major debate here lately, as President Obama has to […]
→ read full articleRESTORING DEMOCRACY IN HONDURAS
Mark Weisbrot,
2 Aug 2009
Hillary Clinton’s attempts to resolve the crisis in Honduras have failed. It’s time for Latin America to take the lead. The mediation effort that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton arranged to try to resolve the crisis in Honduras, which began when a military coup removed Honduran President Mel Zelaya more than four weeks ago, […]
→ read full articleUS LEAVES HONDURAS TO ITS FATE
Mark Weisbrot,
9 Jul 2009
Washington is unwilling to take the side of democracy in Honduras by opposing the coup leaders it helped to train. The military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras took a new turn when Zelaya attempted to return home on Sunday. The military closed the airport and blocked runways to prevent his plane […]
→ read full articleWHO IS AMERICA TO JUDGE?
Mark Weisbrot,
13 Mar 2009
After Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and extraordinary renditions, other countries now challenge America’s standing on human rights. The US state department’s annual human rights report got an unusual amount of criticism this year. This time the centre-left coalition government of Chile was notable in joining other countries such as Bolivia, Venezuela and China – who […]
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