Venezuela, Trump orders total blockade of sanctioned oil tankers

Donald Trump announced that he has ordered a 'total and complete blockade' of all sanctioned oil tankers leaving and arriving in Venezuela, further raising the level of the confrontation with Caracas. In a post published on Truth, the US president claimed that the South American country is 'completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America', adding that this naval presence 'will get bigger and bigger' and that 'the shock' will be 'unprecedented' until Venezuela returns to the US 'all the oil, land and other assets' that, according to Trump, have been 'stolen in the past'. In the message, however, it is not clear why Trump believes Washington has title to these claims.

The tycoon accused the 'illegitimate Maduro regime' of using oil from 'stolen fields' to finance itself and to feed a chain of crimes that includes drug trafficking, human trafficking, murders and kidnappings, speaking of 'drug terrorism'. On this basis, he wrote that the Venezuelan government has been designated a 'foreign terrorist organisation' and announced an order to block the sanctioned oil tankers. In the post, the president also tied the clampdown to the migration issue, claiming that "illegal immigrants and criminals" sent to the US during the "weak and inept" Biden administration will be repatriated "at a rapid pace" and that America will not allow "criminals, terrorists, or others" to rob, threaten, or harm the nation.

Caracas reacted harshly. For the Venezuelan government, the announcement is a "grotesque threat", reports the Efe agency: according to the authorities, Trump is aiming to impose in an "absolutely irrational" manner an alleged military naval blockade with the objective of "stealing Venezuelan wealth".

The escalation comes after last weekUS forces intercepted and seized a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil bound for Cuba and China in the Caribbean Sea. The New York Times reports that a federal judge had issued a seizure warrant on the grounds that the ship had been carrying oil from Iran. On the ship tracking front, the independent Tanker Trackers service indicated earlier this month that more than 30 vessels operating in Venezuela had already been sanctioned by the US.

Since last September, moreover, the US military has conducted air strikes in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific against vessels accused of drug trafficking, many of which struck near the coast of Venezuela. The campaign - which has drawn bipartisan attention from US Congressmen - has caused at least 95 deaths in 25 known attacks. The Trump administration has defended the operations by presenting them as a success, claiming they have prevented drug shipments from reaching US shores, and dismissing concerns that the strategy is overstepping the bounds of 'legal warfare'. Formally, the stated goal remains to stop narcotics bound for the US, but Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, gave a more political interpretation in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Tuesday: the president, she said, "wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro surrenders".