It is not yet clear how the United States will enforce these measures against sanctioned vessels. American company Chevron says its operations in the country will not be interrupted. The siege increases the pressure on Maduro. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered this Tuesday (12/16) “the total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela”, representing another step in the escalation of pressure from the White House on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump said on his Truth Social account that Venezuela “is surrounded” by “the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America” and that it “will only continue to grow” until Venezuela returns “to the United States all the oil, land and other assets they previously stole from us.”
The American president thus announced the siege of the country, as part of a significant escalation of the military operation which began in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea and which would have had the main objective of fighting against drug trafficking organizations operating in the region.
It is unclear how Trump will enforce the measure against sanctioned vessels, or whether he will call on the Coast Guard to intercept the vessels, as he did last week.
While many ships carrying oil to Venezuela are under sanctions, others carrying the country’s oil and crude from Iran and Russia have not been sanctioned, and some companies, particularly the U.S. company Chevron, transport Venezuelan oil on their own authorized vessels.
A spokesperson for Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela under special authorization, said Tuesday that its operations “continue without interruption and in full compliance with the laws and regulations applicable to its activities.”
China is the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil, accounting for about 4% of its imports, with December shipments expected to average more than 600,000 barrels per day, analysts say.
“The regime finances narcoterrorism”
In his message, he added that “the illegitimate Maduro regime uses the oil from these stolen oil fields to finance itself, in addition to financing narcoterrorism, human trafficking, murders and kidnappings.”
Trump did not specify what land or oil he was referring to, but Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s. Later, under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, the companies were forced to cede majority control to Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA.
Caracas criticized Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, saying it aimed to “steal the wealth that belongs to our homeland.”
Last week, the United States Southern Command, which has attacked more than 30 vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since August, took a turn in its actions in international waters by seizing the tanker Skipper, which was carrying Venezuelan oil near the coast of the South American country.
The ship, sanctioned by Washington since 2022 for its links with a so-called “ghost fleet” of oil transport and accused of violating sanctions rules, was transferred to a US port to begin legal proceedings aimed at confiscating its cargo.
“Grotesque threat”
The seizure of the tanker, accused by Maduro of “blatant theft” and an act of piracy, further strained relations between the United States and Venezuela and contributed to a reduction in shipments of Venezuelan oil. Washington imposed sanctions against six companies in the crude oil transport sector and six oil tankers.
Internationally isolated, Venezuela is forced to use these “ghost” ships, which transport Venezuelan crude oil at a price well below market value, to be able to market it and, at the same time, circumvent the financial sanctions imposed on the country.
Caracas described the tanker blockade announced by Trump on Tuesday as “irrational” and a “grotesque threat.”
“The President of the United States intends to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, a so-called military and naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our homeland,” the Venezuelan government said in a statement, adding that Trump was violating the right to “free trade and freedom of navigation” by issuing “a reckless and serious threat” against Venezuela.
Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of around 303 billion barrels, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), more than any other country.
The blockade puts Caracas in difficulty
A blockade of its ports to oil traffic would cause enormous difficulties for the regime, analysts agree.
Putting these shipping companies and vessels directly on a sanctions list “is a very significant escalation,” Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American energy program at the Baker Institute (Texas), told the AFP news agency during the announcement.
These six ships were in Venezuelan ports when the measure was announced, the expert explained. “The United States is waiting for (each ship) to leave the country to stop it,” he explained.
“That, combined with the fact that some ships can literally say ‘I’m not going back to Venezuela,’ could cause the price and volume of exports to drop. If exports also drop, Venezuela’s problem is that it doesn’t have much capacity to store crude oil. So it has to stop production or stop some of it,” he explained.
“If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country’s imports. There could be an economic crisis,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan consultancy, told AFP. “Not just a recession, but also a shortage of food and medicine, because we wouldn’t be able to import.”
Legal issues
US presidents can mobilize forces abroad, but the blockade announced by Trump represents a new test of presidential authority, Elena Chachko, an international law expert at the University of Berkeley School of Law, told the Reuters news agency.
Blockades are traditionally considered permissible instruments of war, but only under strict conditions, Chachko said. “There are serious questions under national and international law,” he added.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, called the blockade “an act of war.” “A war that Congress never authorized and that the American people do not want,” he added.
An effective embargo was already in place after the United States seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with the vessels loaded with millions of barrels of oil remaining in Venezuelan waters to avoid seizure.
Since the seizure, Venezuela’s crude oil exports have fallen significantly, a situation made worse by a cyberattack that took down the administrative systems of state-owned PDVSA this week.
For now, the oil market is well supplied and millions of barrels are sitting in tankers off the coast of China waiting to be unloaded. If the embargo remains in effect for some time, the loss of nearly a million barrels per day of oil supply will likely drive up prices.
md/cn (EFE,AFP)
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