US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington’s latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, targeting its main source of income.
It is unclear how Trump would impose the move against the sanctioned vessels, and whether he would turn to the US Coast Guard to interdict vessels as he did last week. The administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships — including an aircraft carrier — to the region.
“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
Photo: Bloomberg
In a statement, Venezuela’s government said it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat.”
Oil prices rose more than 1 percent in Asian trade yesterday.
Oil market participants said prices were rising in anticipation of a potential reduction in Venezuelan exports, although they were still waiting to see how Trump’s blockade would be enforced and whether it would extend to include non-sanctioned vessels.
Germany yesterday warned against any steps that would jeopardize peace and security in the region.
“The German government has an interest in preventing the situation in the region from deteriorating further. We are therefore viewing the overall situation with concern,” a German Federal Foreign Office spokesperson told a news conference.
US presidents have broad discretion to deploy US forces abroad, but Trump’s asserted blockade marks a new test of presidential authority, said international law expert Elena Chachko, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley Law School.
Blockades have traditionally been treated as permissible “instruments of war,” but only under strict conditions, Chachko said.
“There are serious questions on both the domestic law front and international law front,” she added.
US Representative Joaquin Castro called the blockade “unquestionably an act of war.”
“A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,” Castro wrote on X.
There has been an effective embargo in place after the US last week seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.
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