F-22Raptor
Elite Member
Full blockade on sanctioned oil tankers
Venezuela - US Conflict: News, Updates
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Full blockade on sanctioned oil tankers
Watandar
Trusted Member
Washington Post :
President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, a dramatic escalation in his months-long pressure campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Such a blockade, which Trump revealed Tuesday evening on Truth Social, could devastate Venezuela’s already struggling economy, which depends on overseas oil sales, primarily to China and often on sanctioned vessels.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
Trump also declared the Venezuelan “regime” a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and accused government officials of using oil to enrich themselves and finance drug terrorism.
The step further escalates the pressure Trump has imposed on Venezuela as the U.S. tries to push Maduro to leave the country and threatens military action in Venezuela if he doesn’t.
Last week, U.S. forces in the Caribbean seized a sanctioned vessel loaded with oil after it left Venezuela. Since September, the military has also launched air attacks on two dozen small boats allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela.
One person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said that a high-level meeting scheduled for Wednesday could result in new orders to U.S. naval and air forces gathered in the Caribbean. The person said to expect more forceful U.S. naval operations in the next several days.
The Maduro government, in a statement posted on social media by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, described Trump’s announcement as “grotesque” and “warmongering threats” and vowed to denounce a violation of international law before the United Nations.
Oil industry experts and former U.S. officials questioned the legal and policy rationale of Trump’s declaration, couched in his familiar intemperate language and use of capital letters for emphasis.
It was unclear whether Trump was declaring a new foreign terrorist organization or referring to the previously designated Cartel de los Soles, which the administration has claimed is headed by Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
If, in fact, Trump intends to designate the Maduro government a foreign terrorist organization — a step that legally is taken by the State Department rather than the White House — it would make Venezuela the first country ever to be so. Venezuela’s government is already “blocked,” a step Trump took during his first term that prohibits any U.S. person or entity from doing business with it.
Other governments, including Iran and North Korea, are similarly blocked, but none is a designated terrorist organization. “The difference is if it’s an FTO, you get this extraterritorial application of U.S. law, even if there’s no connection to the United States,” said Jeremy Paner, a former lead investigator and analyst for the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control who now specializes in sanctions and export controls at the international law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
Under the designation, “if an individual or company provides any sort of assistance at all to the government,” Paner said, they could “be grabbed.” Theoretically, he said, that could include executives of Chevron, which produces and exports Venezuelan oil in cooperation with the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, under a Treasury Department license.
Trump also added a new rationale for his attacks against Venezuela — beyond what he said were “terrorism, drug smuggling and human trafficking” — placing at the top of the list what he said were U.S. assets stolen by Venezuela and demanding they be returned “IMMEDIATELY.”
The reference is apparently to Venezuela’s nationalization of its oil industry, a step that has been taken by a number of other oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Mexico. In Venezuela’s case, it took place under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, nearly two decades ago.
“Venezuela’s natural resources never belonged to the United States,” said David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, an international energy advisory consultancy. “While there have been charges of expropriation, which have been arbitrated in an international tribunal, there is no basis for arguing that Venezuela’s oil was stolen from the United States.”
Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said in a statement Tuesday night that the U.S. energy giant’s work in Venezuela continues “without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government.”
Complete blockades of another country are against international law. As described by Trump, the “blockade” would apply only to oil tankers that are part of the so-called dark fleet of vessels that have already been sanctioned by the U.S.
“A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war. A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said in a social media post after Trump’s declaration. Castro is one of the sponsors of a bipartisan resolution directing the president to end hostilities with Venezuela that is expected to be voted on Thursday by the House.
The administration last week seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela that was carrying oil from PDVSA. The U.S. imposed sanctions on the Skipper in 2022, saying that it was involved in transporting illegal Iranian oil.
U.S. forces on Monday killed eight alleged drug smugglers in three boat strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, raising the death toll in what Trump administration officials describe as a counternarcotics campaign to at least 95.
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry sent a letter Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council calling the seizure an “act of state piracy.”
The impacts of Trump’s “blockade” would depend on the level of enforcement, according to Francisco J. Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University in Houston.
Many of the vessels that take Venezuelan oil to the black market in China are already sanctioned, Monaldi said. The independent oil-tracking firm TankerTrackers.com says, however, that only 40 percent of the active dark fleet of vessels serving Venezuela are already under U.S. sanctions. The U.S. could also sanction additional vessels, as the Trump administration did last week.
If the Trump administration manages to effectively block all sanctioned vessels from Venezuela, it could have a “massive impact” on government revenue, because about 80 percent of Venezuela’s oil is sold on the black market, Monaldi said. Oil represents more than 90 percent of Venezuela’s exports and more than half of its fiscal revenue, he added. The blockade could lead to economic contraction, an increase in inflation and a devaluation of the country’s domestic currency, and could eventually affect its ability to maintain production, Monaldi said.
Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver, said that “in practice, this decision amounts to a full naval blockade of Venezuela. Cutting off all oil revenue will lead to a massive reduction in food imports and is likely to trigger the first major famine in the Western Hemisphere in modern history.”
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but mismanagement, poor infrastructure and U.S.-led sanctions have caused output to plummet over the years. Its largest customers are now China and the U.S., to which oil produced in Venezuela by Chevron is exported.Ask The
Trump announces ‘complete blockade’ of sanctioned oil tankers to Venezuela
President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, a dramatic escalation in his months-long pressure campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Such a blockade, which Trump revealed Tuesday evening on Truth Social, could devastate Venezuela’s already struggling economy, which depends on overseas oil sales, primarily to China and often on sanctioned vessels.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
Trump also declared the Venezuelan “regime” a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and accused government officials of using oil to enrich themselves and finance drug terrorism.
The step further escalates the pressure Trump has imposed on Venezuela as the U.S. tries to push Maduro to leave the country and threatens military action in Venezuela if he doesn’t.
Last week, U.S. forces in the Caribbean seized a sanctioned vessel loaded with oil after it left Venezuela. Since September, the military has also launched air attacks on two dozen small boats allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela.
One person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said that a high-level meeting scheduled for Wednesday could result in new orders to U.S. naval and air forces gathered in the Caribbean. The person said to expect more forceful U.S. naval operations in the next several days.
The Maduro government, in a statement posted on social media by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, described Trump’s announcement as “grotesque” and “warmongering threats” and vowed to denounce a violation of international law before the United Nations.
Oil industry experts and former U.S. officials questioned the legal and policy rationale of Trump’s declaration, couched in his familiar intemperate language and use of capital letters for emphasis.
It was unclear whether Trump was declaring a new foreign terrorist organization or referring to the previously designated Cartel de los Soles, which the administration has claimed is headed by Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
If, in fact, Trump intends to designate the Maduro government a foreign terrorist organization — a step that legally is taken by the State Department rather than the White House — it would make Venezuela the first country ever to be so. Venezuela’s government is already “blocked,” a step Trump took during his first term that prohibits any U.S. person or entity from doing business with it.
Other governments, including Iran and North Korea, are similarly blocked, but none is a designated terrorist organization. “The difference is if it’s an FTO, you get this extraterritorial application of U.S. law, even if there’s no connection to the United States,” said Jeremy Paner, a former lead investigator and analyst for the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control who now specializes in sanctions and export controls at the international law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
Under the designation, “if an individual or company provides any sort of assistance at all to the government,” Paner said, they could “be grabbed.” Theoretically, he said, that could include executives of Chevron, which produces and exports Venezuelan oil in cooperation with the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, under a Treasury Department license.
Trump also added a new rationale for his attacks against Venezuela — beyond what he said were “terrorism, drug smuggling and human trafficking” — placing at the top of the list what he said were U.S. assets stolen by Venezuela and demanding they be returned “IMMEDIATELY.”
The reference is apparently to Venezuela’s nationalization of its oil industry, a step that has been taken by a number of other oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Mexico. In Venezuela’s case, it took place under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, nearly two decades ago.
“Venezuela’s natural resources never belonged to the United States,” said David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, an international energy advisory consultancy. “While there have been charges of expropriation, which have been arbitrated in an international tribunal, there is no basis for arguing that Venezuela’s oil was stolen from the United States.”
Chevron spokesman Bill Turenne said in a statement Tuesday night that the U.S. energy giant’s work in Venezuela continues “without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government.”
Complete blockades of another country are against international law. As described by Trump, the “blockade” would apply only to oil tankers that are part of the so-called dark fleet of vessels that have already been sanctioned by the U.S.
“A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war. A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said in a social media post after Trump’s declaration. Castro is one of the sponsors of a bipartisan resolution directing the president to end hostilities with Venezuela that is expected to be voted on Thursday by the House.
The administration last week seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela that was carrying oil from PDVSA. The U.S. imposed sanctions on the Skipper in 2022, saying that it was involved in transporting illegal Iranian oil.
U.S. forces on Monday killed eight alleged drug smugglers in three boat strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, raising the death toll in what Trump administration officials describe as a counternarcotics campaign to at least 95.
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry sent a letter Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council calling the seizure an “act of state piracy.”
The impacts of Trump’s “blockade” would depend on the level of enforcement, according to Francisco J. Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University in Houston.
Many of the vessels that take Venezuelan oil to the black market in China are already sanctioned, Monaldi said. The independent oil-tracking firm TankerTrackers.com says, however, that only 40 percent of the active dark fleet of vessels serving Venezuela are already under U.S. sanctions. The U.S. could also sanction additional vessels, as the Trump administration did last week.
If the Trump administration manages to effectively block all sanctioned vessels from Venezuela, it could have a “massive impact” on government revenue, because about 80 percent of Venezuela’s oil is sold on the black market, Monaldi said. Oil represents more than 90 percent of Venezuela’s exports and more than half of its fiscal revenue, he added. The blockade could lead to economic contraction, an increase in inflation and a devaluation of the country’s domestic currency, and could eventually affect its ability to maintain production, Monaldi said.
Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver, said that “in practice, this decision amounts to a full naval blockade of Venezuela. Cutting off all oil revenue will lead to a massive reduction in food imports and is likely to trigger the first major famine in the Western Hemisphere in modern history.”
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but mismanagement, poor infrastructure and U.S.-led sanctions have caused output to plummet over the years. Its largest customers are now China and the U.S., to which oil produced in Venezuela by Chevron is exported.Ask The
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
In contrast, shipments to Latin America surged. According to the data, naphtha export loadings from Russian ports to Venezuela jumped in November to 190,000 metric tons from 35,000 tons in the previous month.
Some of those cargoes have been discharged and several tankers are still en route.
Shipping data for December indicates at least 100,000 tons of Russian naphtha are destined for Venezuela.
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
We now have the Trump CorollaryView attachment 165133
In the history of United States foreign policy, the Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his 1904 State of the Union Address, largely as a consequence of the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903. The corollary states that the United States could intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries if they committed flagrant wrongdoings that "loosened the ties of civilized society".
Roosevelt Corollary - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Presidential Actions
America 250: Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine
ProclamationsDecember 2, 2025
America 250: Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine
On December 2, 1823, the doctrine of American sovereignty was immortalized in prose when President James Monroe declared before the Nation a simple truth Every child deserves a safe and nurturing home where they can learn, grow, and reach their full potential. Adoption makes that possible by...
www.whitehouse.gov
"On December 2, 1823, the doctrine of American sovereignty was immortalized in prose when President James Monroe declared before the Nation a simple truth that has echoed throughout the ages: The United States will never waver in defense of our homeland, our interests, or the well-being of our citizens. Today, my Administration proudly reaffirms this promise under a new “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine: That the American people—not foreign nations nor globalist institutions—will always control their own destiny in our hemisphere."
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Davey Crockett
Elite Member
Trump's 'Monroe Doctrine 2.0' completely misreads Latin America
The president's new hemispheric strategy revives interventionist logic while ignoring the region's urgent need for infrastructure and economic diversification
Trump's 'Monroe Doctrine 2.0' completely misreads Latin America
The president's new hemispheric strategy revives interventionist logic while ignoring the region's urgent need for infrastructure and economic diversification
responsiblestatecraft.org
Trump's 'Monroe Doctrine 2.0' completely misreads Latin America
The president's new hemispheric strategy revives interventionist logic while ignoring the region's urgent need for infrastructure and economic diversification
responsiblestatecraft.org
There is little doubt that the reference cited above in the NSS is aimed at excluding Chinese companies from continuing to do so. Moreover, the NSS expands this notion beyond infrastructure by stating, “we will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets” (my emphasis). This, of course, could mean anything, from dams and power stations to key mineral resources, standing in the way of FDI from anywhere outside the Americas.
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
The question we need to ask is who's our new Zionist Banana Man?
