LATIN AMERICA
Trump orders blockade of Venezuela
US President announces blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers and extends military siege in the Caribbean; Caracas denounces violation of international law
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday (16) that he has ordered the blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering and leaving Venezuela. The measure intensifies the US offensive against the South American country and directly targets the main source of income for the Venezuelan economy: oil exports.
According to reports, the decision was announced after a US military escalation in the region. Last week, US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The action came amid an increase in Washington’s military presence in the Caribbean, accompanied by a series of attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, which the US government links to drug trafficking.
In a post on social media, Trump accused Venezuela of using oil to finance drug trafficking and other crimes and said he would maintain the military reinforcement. The US president wrote that Venezuela would be “completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America”, and threatened to extend the siege “until they return to the United States of America all the oil, land and other assets they have stolen from us”.
The military campaign announced by Washington has been criticized by US lawmakers from both parties. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has defended the operations as “successful”, claiming that they have prevented drugs from reaching US shores. The set of known attacks killed at least 95 people in 25 actions against boats.
The Venezuelan government itself denounces that the real aim of the operation is to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro in order to seize the country’s oil. This line was reinforced by statements made by the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in an interview published on Tuesday: according to the report, Wiles said that Trump “wants to keep sinking ships until Maduro surrenders”. In the same vein, Trump declared that he was treating the Venezuelan government as a “foreign terrorist organization”.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world and produces around one million barrels a day. By announcing the tanker blockade, Washington is seeking to restrict the circulation of Venezuelan oil and strangle the country’s economy by laying siege to the Caribbean Sea.
Caracas denounces ‘grotesque threat’, reaffirms sovereignty and announces UN complaint
Also on Tuesday, the Venezuelan government issued a statement in which it denounced Trump’s measure as a “serious” violation of international law and a colonialist attempt to “steal” the country’s natural resources. Caracas also said it would file a formal complaint with the United Nations.
In the text, the government said that Trump, “in violation of international law, free trade and free navigation, has launched a reckless and serious threat against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”. The note also accuses the US president of acting as if Venezuelan wealth were US property: “on his social networks, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land and mineral wealth are his property and, consequently, Venezuela must hand over all its wealth to him immediately”.
The statement claims that Trump “intends to impose an absolutely irrational supposed naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our homeland”. In response, Caracas stated that it “ratifies its sovereignty over all its natural wealth, as well as the right to free navigation and free trade in the Caribbean Sea and the world’s oceans”.
The note also states that Venezuela, “in strict adherence to the UN Charter”, will fully exercise its “freedom, jurisdiction and sovereignty” in the face of “warmongering threats”, and informs: “immediately, our ambassador to the UN will proceed to denounce this serious violation of international law against Venezuela”.
The Venezuelan government also called on the US population and the peoples of the world to reject the escalation: “we call on the people of the United States and the peoples of the world to reject by all means this extravagant threat, which once again reveals Donald Trump’s true intentions to steal Venezuela’s wealth”. The statement quotes Trump’s “interventionist and colonialist” phrase verbatim: “until all the oil, land and other assets that were stolen from us before are returned to the US”.
At the end, the statement reaffirms that Venezuela “will never again be a colony of any empire or foreign power” and says that the country will continue, “together with its people”, to “unrestrictedly” defend its independence and sovereignty. The statement also mentions the “popular, military and police unity” in the defense of the territory and recalls a phrase attributed to Simón Bolívar: “by fortune a handful of free men have been seen to defeat powerful empires”.
Kast supports ‘any situation’ and meets with Milei
The US offensive has also found support on the Latin American right. On Tuesday (16), José Antonio Kast, president-elect of Chile, declared that he supports “any situation” to end the Venezuelan government and described the country as a “dictatorship” and “narco-dictatorship”. The statement was made at a press conference at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, when he was asked about US military intervention in the region.
Kast said that Chile could not intervene directly because it is “a small country”, but claimed that his country would be a “victim of terror” as a result of the Venezuelan situation. He also accused fraud in the Venezuelan election, said that Maduro “stole” the vote and said that the Venezuelan president “has no democratic legitimacy”, arguing that the issue required an “international agreement” and demanding a position from “international organizations”.
On Monday, Maduro responded to the statements and criticized the Chilean president-elect, calling him a “Pinochetist Nazi”. In the same speech, Maduro warned against possible measures to persecute Venezuelan migrants in Chile and said that they “have rights” and that the Chilean Constitution must guarantee them.
Kast’s statements came during his first trip abroad following his election victory. On Tuesday, he met with Argentine President Javier Milei. According to reports, the two discussed security, the fight against transnational organized crime and stimulating trade and investment. Milei, who publicly celebrated Kast’s victory, declared that the election represented a step “in defense of life, liberty and private property” and said that he would work to ensure that the region is “freed from the oppressive yoke of 21st century socialism”.
