Business & Economics
U.S. Begins De-Facto Maritime Blockade, Chases Third Venezuelan Sanctions-Busting Tanker in 11 Days
On 21 Dec 2025 the U.S. Coast Guard moved to seize a third ‘dark-fleet’ tanker near Venezuela just 24 hours after boarding the Centuries and 11 days after capturing the Skipper, signalling the start of President Trump’s announced oil-tanker “blockade.”
Focusing Facts
- Timeline: Skipper seized 10 Dec; Centuries boarded before dawn 20 Dec; third vessel (identified by industry sources as Bella 1) pursued 21 Dec but not yet boarded.
- Pentagon reports 28 ship strikes since Sept., leaving at least 104 dead, amid the wider maritime campaign tied to drug- and oil-smuggling claims.
- Venezuelan VP/Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez says national storage is near capacity and production (1.2 mbd) could begin shutting within ‘days’ if blockade holds.
Context
Great-power coercion at sea is hardly new: Britain’s 1904–14 “distant blockade” of Germany and the 1962 U.S. Cuban ‘quarantine’ both mixed legal grey zones with naval muscle to throttle an adversary’s trade. Today’s pursuit of Venezuelan tankers fits a 21st-century pattern where sanctions and maritime interdiction merge—seen earlier in U.S. seizures of Iranian fuel cargos (2020) and Russia–North Korea coal swaps (2018). The gambit leverages U.S. blue-water dominance and financial reach, yet risks normalising gunboat economic policy and inviting tit-for-tat detentions by other powers. Over a 100-year horizon the episode may matter less for near-term oil prices—already trending downward amid an energy transition—than for the precedent it sets: a world where sea lanes become enforcement zones for unilateral sanctions, eroding post-1945 freedom-of-navigation norms and nudging smaller states toward alternative security or payment systems to avoid being blockaded at will.
Perspectives
U.S.-aligned & South Asian outlets that echo the Trump administration’s justification
e.g., WION, The Indian Express, Devdiscourse — Portray the Coast Guard pursuit as a lawful clamp-down on a sanctioned “dark fleet,” stressing that only a few black-market tankers are involved and that oil prices should stay stable. By leaning heavily on anonymous U.S. officials and White House economic advisers and offering little scrutiny, these reports largely transmit the administration’s talking points while minimizing potential economic or legal downsides.
AP-syndicated mainstream U.S. news outlets stressing legal and humanitarian concerns
e.g., PBS.org, San Jose Mercury News, NBC New York, AOL, TheSpec — Frame the tanker chases within a broader, rapidly escalating “blockade” that has already killed over 100 people, quoting lawmakers who question the strikes’ legality and warn against an undeclared war on Venezuela. By foregrounding casualties, congressional criticism and the term “extrajudicial killings,” these stories may heighten perceptions of U.S. overreach while giving less space to arguments about curbing sanctions-evasion.
Outlets amplifying Venezuelan government outrage
e.g., The Island, ArcaMax — Present the seizures as “theft and kidnapping” and “piracy,” warning that the U.S. blockade could trigger Venezuela’s production collapse and social unrest. Relying on Caracas statements and opposition advisers, these pieces spotlight U.S. aggression yet gloss over Maduro’s alleged corruption and human-rights abuses that underpin the sanctions.