Your report (“Trump revokes permits for oil companies in Venezuela to pressure Maduro”, Report, FT.com, March 30) reflects a policy choice as damaging as it is familiar.
The US has attempted economic punishment in the past. The result, time and time again, has been a collapsed economy, mass displacement and growing regional instability. If the goal is democratic reform, then cutting off oil revenue is like punishment dressed up as policy. It’s purely performative, not effective.
There are better tools than collective punishment, which has ultimately been chosen. Smart, targeted measures would isolate the regime’s elites without turning a humanitarian need into geopolitical leverage.
Sanctions that erode livelihoods and public infrastructure don’t foster democracy — they foster despair. And that is no foundation for political change.
Joseph Houlden
Student of Human Geography
Queen Mary University of London, UK
