Venezuela Madness: MCM flies the coop and US seizes ship with 1.6 million barrels of crude
Asked what would happen with the oil, Trump said: “We keep it, I guess,” then proceeded to say Colombia is “next.”
Yesterday, US naval forces seized a Russian tanker that contained more than 1.6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, according to US President Donald Trump, who announced the seizure via social media.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” said Trump in comments to the press following the announcement.
The White House said the ship is a target of US sanctions for what it claims is involvement in ‘illegal’ Iranian oil trading when the vessel was called the Adisa. The US also claimed the Russian vessel was falsely flying the Guayanese flag.
The White House did not release the name the vessel is currently using, but multiple sources, including security firms and vessel-tracking experts, identified the ship as the (VLCC) Skipper.
Asked what would happen with the oil, Trump said “We keep it, I guess.”
In the same press conference, Trump also threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro, saying “Colombia is producing a lot of drugs, so he better wise up or he’ll be next. He’ll be next soon. I hope he’s listening, he’s going to be next.”
After an initial video with footage from the attack was released by the White House, various US governmental agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE, posted a longer video montage of soldiers landing on the seized tanker to the song “I’m Gonna Knock You Out,” by hip-hop artist LL Cool J.
Though US officials claimed the boat was bound for Cuba, ship-tracking experts charting the course of VLCC Skipper tracked it to Panama, where it transferred 200,000 barrels to another vessel bound for Cuba, before continuing with the remaining cargo.
The seizure seems to represent an escalation by the US, which has bombed more than 20 vessels it claims are boats carrying drugs in the Caribbean as part of a massive naval build-up in the region, killing nearly 100 people.
The US has offered no evidence for its claims the boats were carrying drugs bound for the US, and in at least some instances, those claims were demonstrably false.
But until Wednesday, the US had avoided interference with Venezuelan oil sales to Asia, the majority to Chinese markets. The Venezuelan government also trades with Russia and Iran in transactions the US claims are illegal.
Confusingly, however, US oil company Chevron continues to operate without problems in Venezuela, with blessings from both Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Trump.
Chevron produces 240,000 barrels of crude a day, but is only allowed to export about half of that. It pays the Venezuelan government for oil rights in trade — an effort to avoid cash transactions with a US-sanctioned entity.
That is to say, Chevron produces the amount of oil that was seized from the Russian vessel every week, and exports the amount seized just a little more than twice a month.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Conn.) told NewsNation last night that while he does not know the details of the incident, he is “gravely concerned that [Trump] is sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.”
The US action seemed timed to coincide with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s escape from Venezuela to Oslo, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado has been banned from leaving the country for a decade and was barred from running in the presidential election last year, despite having won the opposition’s primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August that year after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.
She fled the country by boat, reportedly in contact with US naval forces to avoid being struck by drones in the Caribbean, according to statements from her team. Though she missed the award ceremony, she greeted supporters from the balcony of Oslo’s Grand Hotel, who waved Venezuelan flags and sang the national anthem.
“I came to receive the prize on behalf of the Venezuelan people, and I will take it back to Venezuela at the correct moment,” she told reporters at parliament, dressed in white. She did not say when that may occur.
Machado’s Nobel acceptance speech was read by her daughter at a ceremony earlier in the day that was widely cited by Democracy advocates and her supporters.
Machado is an outspoken advocate of US intervention, and even invasion, of Venezuela, and has often echoed false claims made by Trump about the Maduro government, migration, and the Tren de Aragua.
She has also supported the conspiracy theory that Maduro helped rig the 2020 elections in the US, as well as interfered in elections in “dozens of other countries.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday found that a plurality of voters in the US oppose their military’s campaign of deadly strikes on the boats, including about one-fifth of Trump’s Republicans. More than two-thirds oppose any direct US military intervention in the country.
Machado fleeing the country, even for a Nobel Peace Prize, is an objective win for the Maduro government. She can do little from outside of the country other than plead for support from allies in the international community.
The tanker seizure seems clearly timed by the White House to coincide with her escape: an attempt to give Maduro a ‘black eye’ as it were, on a day that he would have otherwise held up as a victory.
Will the White House be content with merely this minor injury, or will they continue to escalate?
In theory, any vessel carrying oil purchased in Venezuela could be viewed by the US as violating sanctions. The question becomes, is this just a one-off, or will the considerable number of US naval forces in the region begin to impose an oil blockade on the Maduro government?
We don’t know! To say US policy towards Venezuela during the Trump administration has been chaotic would be an understatement. But this is definitely a story to watch as the week continues.
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
Three things.
A) Back in 2020 the US seized 4 Iranian oil tankers bound for Venezuela, for on the face same reason. Sanctions involving funding of Hezbollah, and Iranian proxy groups (from the justice department: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/largest-us-seizure-iranian-fuel-four-tankers). And the BBC does report that the Skipper (the current ship) did visit Iran this year. But it is a bit strange as you report it just happens on the day of Machado's 'victory' speech in Oslo. But I say all of this to indicate I doubt the US will stop with seizure of just one oil tanker. Especially when the US government gets to keep any funds produced by the seized property as in the case of the 4 Iranian oil tankers.
B) The mention that Colombia may be next and that Chevron is already in the Venezuela, indicates to me, that the motive for this whole is less about material goods of Venezuela (i.e. oil) but rather personal grievances of the president, not even ideology when the two countries even with Petro as president of Colombia are ideologically similar to one another.
C) If we are to take Machado's word at face value and that an American intervention is actually needed, why would we trust this administration of cowboys? Not one person in this administration is serious about anything outside of being a rancid racist. There isn't even the evil seriousness of say a John Bolton, or Chenney of previous administrations (does anyone think Hesgeth or even Rubio is spending hours thinking about foreign affairs instead of what is woke?). Any intervention done by the US currently, would certainly not end up like Panama '89. And if there is anything we should have learn from the past decades is that a situation no matter how bleak can always become worse; there is no rockbottom.
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War drums for drums of oil.
Again.