BRATTLEBORO — U.S. sanctions have blocked the Venezuelan people from obtaining food and medicine. These sanctions resulted in at least 40,000 deaths between mid-2017 and the end of 2018, according to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research - and that was prior to the most severe sanctions, announced in January 2019.
What exactly is happening in Venezuela? What can be done? Those questions will be addressed during the Vermont premiere of a new documentary film, Venezuelans Under Siege, which will feature a discussion with the film's co-director, Kevin Young, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The screening takes place Saturday, Nov. 16, from 5 to 7 p.m., at 118 Elliot, located at 118 Elliot St., in Brattleboro. It is sponsored by Brattleboro Solidarity and Everyone's Books.
Venezuelans Under Siege documents the impacts of the sanctions plus the ways ordinary Venezuelans are organizing to survive the crisis and to build new institutions of participatory socialism.
The event is free and open to the public, but will also serve as a fundraiser for Venezuelan victims of the U.S. sanctions.
The funds raised will finance an urgent operation for the three-year-old girl featured in the film, with any remaining funds sent directly to the community-run pharmacy profiled in the film. To help, visit www.gofundme.com/f/venezuelamedicines.