Wayne Madsen writing on Lewrcokwell.com, an “anti-state, anti-war, pro-market” US website says sanctions on Zimbabwe are not about human rights but about “regime change”.
“Donald Trump, who has labeled African nations ‘shitholes’, will not be satisfied until all of Africa consists of Washington’s client states, voting in lockstep at the United Nations for US and Israeli interests,” he said.
“The extension of US sanctions against Zimbabwe bears the watermark of Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who developed a pathological hatred for countries like Zimbabwe, which regularly denounced US policies in the UN and other international forums.
“Although Zimbabwe has implemented electoral reforms, committed itself to recognizing human rights, and improved press freedoms in the country, it is not enough for the firmly neo-con Trump administration.
“The Trump administration insists that Mnangagwa’s victory in last July’s presidential election was flawed, even as Trump and the completely ‘Trumpified’ Republican Party faces legitimate charges of voter intimidation, election fraud, and other election malfeasance across the United States.”
The US seems to be hiding under the guise that it imposed targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) which affects the 84 individuals and 56 entities mentioned by the embassy.
But ZDERA works hand-in-hand with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) which imposes comprehensive sanctions on any country deemed by the US to pose “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States”.
This was the very language Trump used when he renewed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
“On March 6, 2003, by Executive Order 13288, the President declared a national emergency and blocked the property of certain persons, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706), to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions. These actions and policies had contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region,” Trump said in his notice renewing the sanction.
“On November 22, 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13391 to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 by ordering the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
“On July 25, 2008, the President issued Executive Order 13469, which expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 and authorized the blocking of the property of additional persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.
“The actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2019. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288.”
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