Zimbabwe's Sanctions Smokescreen CFR_Africa: Zimbabwe
targeted U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwean individuals and entities responsible for committing grave human rights abuses, undermining democracy, or contributing to corruption on a massive scale. The targeted sanctions regime, first established in 2003, was intended to pressure and isolate those most responsible for political violence and the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.
Policymakers hoped that establishing concrete disincentives for the worst excesses in the country would stem the tide of authoritarianism and kleptocracy, creating more space for the many Zimbabweans who wish to express their political views without reason to fear, and who support genuine democracy, accountability, and the rule of law.
Nearly two decades on, the sanctions regime has succeeded in inconveniencing some of the most odious actors in Zimbabwe. But it has not stopped Zimbabwe's seemingly endless descent into dictatorship and despair, in which a small circle of elites enrich themselves and protect their access to power while the rest of the country suffers.
At the same time, sanctions serve as a handy scapegoat for those elites, who often mischaracterize them as a blanket ban on trade and investment in Zimbabwe and assert that these restrictions, rather than their own mismanagement, are to blame for the country's troubles. The result is a disheartening stasis.
Instead, as the 2023 elections draw closer in Zimbabwe, the situation in the country seems to be getting worse. Opposition parliamentarians Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole languish in detention on dubious
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