Venezuela Rebukes Trump's Complete Blockade

Venezuela Rebukes Trump’s ‘Complete Blockade’ and Terrorist Designation Venezuela Venezuela denounced the United States’ decision to impose what President Donald Trump called a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers as a violation of international law, a move that analysts called a major escalation with significant economic and humanitarian consequences for a country overwhelmingly dependent on oil exports, the Washington Post reported. On Tuesday, Trump announced the blockade on Truth Social, saying all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela would be barred. He also declared the administration of President Nicolás Maduro a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and accused officials of using oil revenues to finance “drug terrorism.” In response, the Venezuelan government described Trump’s remarks as “grotesque” and a set of “warmongering threats,” vowing to raise the issue at the United Nations. The announcement follows a series of US actions targeting Venezuela in recent months: Since September, the US military has carried out airstrikes on small boats it says were involved in drug trafficking, killing at least 95 people. The United States has also increased its naval presence in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, including the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft-carrier strike group. Tensions escalated last week when US forces seized a previously sanctioned oil tanker after it left Venezuelan waters. On Tuesday, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council, calling the recent seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker an “act of state piracy.” Venezuela has accused Washington of seeking to seize control of the country’s natural resources. Meanwhile, Washington’s move would make Venezuela the first country ever to receive the FTO designation. Jeremy Paner, a former Treasury Department sanctions investigator, told the Post that this designation would extend US law extraterritorially, exposing any individual or company providing “any sort of assistance at all” to potential enforcement action. Meanwhile, legal analysts worried that the naval blockade could be deemed as an act of war, while also questioning how the wide-ranging blockade on sanctioned oil tankers would be enforced, the BBC added. They explained that roughly 80 percent of Venezuela’s oil is sold on the black market and that blocking sanctioned vessels could have a “massive impact” on government revenue. Because the country’s economy heavily relies on oil exports, the blockade could potentially lead to economic contraction, higher inflation, and currency devaluation. Others warned that cutting off oil revenue could sharply reduce food imports and trigger a severe humanitarian crisis. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but years of sanctions, mismanagement, and infrastructure decay have sharply reduced output, leaving China and US-licensed exports by Chevron as its main remaining customers. Share this story