After the seizure of an oil tanker, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on the regime in Caracas. The goal? Hitting drug trafficking and curbing Beijing’s influence
Washington and Caracas are increasingly at loggerheads. The United States seized an oil tanker under sanctions off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday. “We just seized an oil tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a huge, very large oil tanker, the largest ever, actually, and there are other things happening,” said Donald Trump, who also called for Nicolas Maduro’s resignation.
On Thursday, the US administration also confirmed that it intended to keep the seized oil. “The ship will arrive at a US port and the United States intends to seize the oil. However, there is a legal procedure for seizing that oil, and that procedure will be followed,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who also ruled out that Trump is aiming for a war against Caracas. “A prolonged war is definitely not something this president is interested in,” he said, “He’s been very clear about that. He wants peace. He also wants to see an end to the illegal drug trade in the United States, which claims victims across the country.”
Also on Thursday, the US administration imposed new sanctions on some of Maduro’s relatives and on six Venezuelan oil tankers: ships that, according to the Treasury Department in Washington, “have adopted deceptive and dangerous transportation practices and that continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.” Not only that. Also on Thursday, Reuters revealed that the US was preparing to seize more Venezuelan oil tankers.
In short, Trump’s pressure on the Caracas regime is increasing. In recent weeks, Washington has deployed some warships off the coast of Venezuela. Furthermore, since September, it has launched a series of military attacks against vessels accused of transporting drugs to the detriment of the United States. And drug trafficking is mainly at the basis of the current tensions between Washington and Caracas: drug trafficking in which, according to the Trump administration, Maduro is heavily involved. That said, the issue is broader. And it brings into question both energy and geopolitical issues.
As demonstrated by the national security strategy recently published by the White House, Trump intends to bring forward an updated re-edition of the Monroe Doctrine: his objective is, in other words, to strengthen US influence on the Western Hemisphere, stemming Beijing’s economic-political competition. In this respect, it is no mystery at all that Maduro’s regime is one of China’s main points of reference in Latin America. Let us also remember that the People’s Republic is the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil. It is therefore also within this framework that the growing fibrillations between Washington and Caracas must be placed.
