President Trump has ordered what he called a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as the United States escalates pressure on the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The move comes amid a major U.S. military buildup in the region and days after U.S. forces seized an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil. Since September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 25 airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific near Venezuela, killing at least 95 people.
The administration’s actions against Venezuela signal “the total renunciation of liberal internationalism” and further abandonment of “a world governed by common laws,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Yale University professor Greg Grandin. This comes as Latin America is on a “knife’s edge between the left and the right,” with the Trump administration eager to boost its authoritarian allies across the region, says Grandin.
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In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Mr. Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue the military buildup until the country gave the U.S. oil, land and assets, though it was not clear why he felt the U.S. had a claim. > “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Mr. Trump said in a post on his social-media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before – Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
What in the fuck is he talking about?venezuela is not part of the US, and has never been owned by them.
The US needs to be sanctioned for this, which is basically a declaration of war. How else can “cede your land and we’ll stop bombing you” possibly be interpreted?
Sanctioned oil tankers, sanctioned for what?