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‘Act of war’: Trump orders blockade of ‘sanctioned’ Venezuelan oil tankers
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‘Act of war’: Trump orders blockade of ‘sanctioned’ Venezuelan oil tankers

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US President Donald Trump has announced a naval blockade of “sanctioned oil ships” departing and heading to Venezuela, sharply escalating his pressure campaign against the South American country.
The US has been building a large military presence in the Caribbean for months – with the aim of combating drug trafficking, but with a particular focus on Venezuela.
Venezuela sees the operation as a pressure campaign to remove it from power left-wing leader Nicolás Madurowho is considered an ‘illegitimate’ president by the US and many countries.
Tensions have been rising for weeks as Trump signals his intention to take military action in Venezuela, ominously declaring that the country’s airspace should be considered “closed” and that efforts to halt drug trafficking “on land” will begin soon.
“Today I am ordering a TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SNCTIONED OIL TANKERS entering and leaving Venezuela,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday evening US time.

Referring to the many naval and naval forces amassed in the Caribbean – including the largest aircraft carrier in the world – Trump warned: “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America.”

Why is Donald Trump imposing a blockade?

With the Venezuelan economy heavily dependent on crude oil exports, the move to cripple the oil sector is likely to further increase pressure on Maduro.
But Trump pointed to another goal on Tuesday: regaining American access to Venezuelan oil production.

The US armada “will only get bigger,” Trump said, until Venezuela returns “all the oil, land and other assets they previously stole from us” to the United States of America.

He did not specify which oil or country he was referring to, but Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s.
Later, under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez, companies were forced to relinquish majority control to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

A spokesperson for the US company Chevron, which continues to operate in Venezuela under a waiver from special sanctions, said on Tuesday that its operations “continue without disruption and in full compliance with the laws and regulations applicable to its activities.”

Is Trump’s Blockade Legal?

US presidents have broad discretion to deploy the country’s armed forces abroad, but Trump’s alleged blockade marks a new test of presidential authority, said international legal scholar Elena Chachko of UC Berkeley Law School.
Blockades have traditionally been treated as permissible “tools of war,” but only under strict conditions, Chachko said.

“There are serious questions on both the domestic and international law fronts.”

U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, called the blockade “unquestionably an act of war.”

“A war that Congress never authorized and that the American people do not want,” Castro added on X.

What consequences could the blockade have for Venezuela?

Venezuela strongly criticized Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, saying he was out to “steal the riches that belong to our homeland.”
Venezuela has been circumventing US oil sanctions for years and selling crude oil at a discounted price on the black market, mainly to China.
According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of around 303 billion barrels – more than any other country.
“If there are no oil exports, this will affect the country’s foreign exchange market and imports… An economic crisis could break out,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan consultancy, recently told AFP.
“Not only a recession, but also shortages of food and medicine, because we wouldn’t be able to import.”
Two US officials said the new policy, if fully implemented, could have a major impact on Maduro.
David Goldwyn, a former State Department energy diplomat, said if Venezuela’s stricken exports are not replaced by increased spare capacity from OPEC, the impact on oil prices could be between $5 and $8 a barrel.
“I expect inflation to skyrocket and massive and immediate migration from Venezuela to neighboring countries,” Goldwyn said.
Since the U.S. imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying Venezuelan oil have resorted to a “shadow fleet” of tankers that conceal their locations, as well as sanctioned ships for transporting Iranian or Russian oil.
More than 30 of the 80 ships in Venezuelan waters or approaching the country were under US sanctions last week, according to data collected by TankerTrackers.com.

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