US Sanctions on countries responsible for 38 million deaths over 50 years, expert says

Washington and New York. Most people in the United States see their country as an exceptional and generous nation, explains renowned international relations expert John Mearsheimer. In reality, however, this global power has wielded its immense economic strength through sanctions – particularly against countries in the Middle East, as well as Iran, Venezuela, and now Cuba – measures that have caused millions of deaths worldwide.
    “The level of killing and violence we have created around the world is simply staggering,” Mearsheimer said at a forum at the University of Chicago, where he serves as a professor. “If you think about the consequences of the war in Iraq, what we are doing in places like Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, you realise that we use our tremendous economic weight essentially to starve populations, to make them suffer, to inflict enormous punishment so they will rise up against their governments.”
    He noted that a recent study estimated nearly 40 million deaths resulting from this US strategy over the past half-century.
    The prestigious scientific journal TheLancet published a study late last year assessing the impact of US economic sanctions imposed on 152 countries between 1971 and 2021. The authors [Francisco Rodriguez, Silvio Rendón and Mark Weisbrot] found a significant causal link between sanctions and increased mortality, with the strongest effects stemming from unilateral US measures.
    “We estimate that unilateral sanctions over this period caused 564 258 deaths per year,” the researchers concluded. For Mearsheimer, the study provides grounds to accuse the United States of mass homicide. “We killed 38 million people – 38 million,” he said, summarising the overall impact of sanctions imposed by successive administrations in Washington.
    “This is what we are doing in Venezuela and Iran. We are inflicting massive punishment on those populations. That is why it is very difficult for me to describe the United States as a noble country. I do not believe we are exceptionally virtuous when it comes to foreign policy,” he added.
    The prominent scholar also expressed concern that President Donald Trump is reintroducing “old-style colonialism or traditional imperialism” in the Western Hemisphere.
    “He’s going to govern Venezuela. Can you believe that? He thinks their oil belongs to us. He’s going to govern Cuba and Nicaragua. He’s even toying with Greenland and Canada,” Mearsheimer warned during the forum.
    “And do you want to know when we will leave Iran – or how that will end?” •

Source: https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/03/11/mundo/las-sanciones-de-eu-a-paises-causa-de-38-millones-de-muertes-en-50-anos-experto of 11 March 2026

(Translation from Spanish Current Concerns)