Following a 12-day visit to Venezuela, Alena Douhan, a UN special rapporteur focusing on sanctions, recommended in a preliminary report that the sanctions be lifted, and the Venezuelan government be granted access to funds frozen in the United States, United Kingdom, and Portugal. However, Venezuela’s opposition and U.S. officials point out that the country’s economic collapse began before the imposition of economic sanctions, and argued the sanctions are justified because Maduro’s government would more likely use the resources for corrupt ends than to alleviate Venezuelans’ suffering.

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