The Trump administration recently imposed sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company on Monday, seeking to cripple the government of embattled President Nicolás Maduro by cutting off its main source of cash. Yesterday, a day after the Trump administration’s imposition of sanctions on the state-owned oil firm PDVSA, senior U.S. and Venezuelan diplomats traded jibes at a U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament. The move marked the first punitive step by the United States to force Mr. Maduro to give up power since the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim president last week after years of accusations of corruption in Venezuela at the expense of its people.

GUEST: Dr Shingai Mutizwa-Mangiza – From the Political Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape