We Affirm.

Contention One is Fighting Corona

Flores 20’ of theGreyZone finds that “ US measures have impeded banks from carrying out financial
transactions for the purchase of medical supplies, and have caused a 90% decrease in Venezuela’s
foreign income earnings, depriving the health sector of much needed investment.” Critically, he
concludes that this has trippled the cost of Corona testing kits in Venezuela. Importnantly, Davis of US
News finds that because of the lack of medical suplies and poor venezuelans lacking the reasources to
go into quarentine, there is little chance for the spread of Corona to be stopped.

The Impact is Death. Fortune 19’ finds that in the last stages of the Corona virus, without proper
medical equipment the mortality rate is 61.5%. Even worse, The Washington Post 20’ finds that “for
millions of people suddenly stripped of livelihoods, daily wages and the means for their families’
survival, poverty may kill sooner than the coronavirus.”

Contention Two is the Refugee Crisis

Rendon 19 writes that the US sanctions have starved the Venezeulan people of US dollars, and isolated
Venezuela. Because of this, Dooley 18 finds that 17% of the Venezelan population has fled the country.

Affirming, and ending sanctions in Venezuela, stops the outflow of refugees in three ways.

First, through facilitating foreign assistance. US sanctions are preventing the international community
from assisting Venezuela. Tokar of the Wall Street Journal reports that US sanctions have pressured
financial institutions to move away from Venezuela, completely blocking international institutions’
ability to transfer goods into the country, with bank accounts frozen for humanitarian organizations.
Furthermore, Slama of the Wall Street Journal writes that the Trump administration has improperly
delineated which financial lines are not sanctioned, creating a confusing mess in which aid is often
blocked.

Because of this, the Financial Times finds in 2020 that the Venezuela crisis remains the most
internationally underfunded crisis in modern history; foreign assistance is 10 times less than what is was
in Syria, preventing economic recovery. Importantly, the UN 19’ finds that 7 million people need
humanitarian assistance in Venezuela.

Second, through stemming hyperinflation. Weisbrot 19 of the CEPR writes that US sanctions have cut off
entrance to correspondent banking services, removing access to dollars and raising the cost of goods.
The US is also removing solutions; Weisbrot concludes that sanctions stop Venezuela from implementing
exchange-rate based currency stabilization, in which the ratio between the dollar and the bolivar
becomes fixed, removing ambiguity from the market. Because of this, he notes that before US sanctions
inflation in the country was around 750%, but after sanctions inflation skyrocketed to hyperinflationary
levels.

As necessities become cost-prohibitive, Gunson 19 of the Crisis Group reports that hundreds of
thousands of Venezuelans are leaving the country, primarily due to hyperinflation.

Third, allowing remittances. Flores 19 of Venezuelan Analysis writes that 30% of Venezuelans receive a
total of 3$ billion yearly in remittances, but U.S sanctions have prevented global banks from engaging
within Venezuela. As a result US sanctions have both decreased remittances and made them impossible
to access, leaving millions of Venezuelans in the lurch.

Remittances can stop the refugee crisis; Armario 18 of the Star explains that remittances help people
purchase necessities, allowing them to stay in the country and reducing refugee outflows. Indeed, the
Brookings Institute quantifies that every one billion dollar decrease in Venezuelan remittances would
lead to 4.1 million additional refugees.

Because of these three reasons, CELAG Economics 19 finds that up to 60% of the crisis can be attributed
to sanctions and Truax 14 of Arizona State University looks at the empirical implementation of sanctions
and notes that they create up to 38% more refugees.

Two impacts of the refugee crisis

First is Death. Because of poor conditions crossing the border and a lack of food and water, the NNIRR
finds that refugees are 8 times more likely to die.

Second is Brain Drain. The Venezuelan crisis has forced the well educated to leave the country: Cob 14 of
Reuters quantifies that 90 percent of those who have left the country have obtained a bachelor's
degree. More specifically, Delgato 19 of the Miami Herald notes that 22,000 doctors have left the
country, creating a collapse of medical infrastructure and an 85% medicine shortage for the country.
Thus, Schreiber 19 of NPR quantifies that 7 million in Venezuela are in desperate need of medical care
and mortality has increased by 65% due to the collapse of the medical infrastructure.

It is not too late to solve this problem, as Smilde 19 of Tulane University concludes that were we to
address the issues behind the refugee crisis soon, half of all Venezuelans would return.

Overall, Solving the crisis is critical for a long term recovery. Sanchez of CNBC 19 explains that if nothing
changes, the lack of a professional workforce and the most educated citizens will prevent Venezuela
from regrowing its economy in the long run.

Thus, we affirm.