The Dec. 10 seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker, the imposition of sanctions on six additional vessels, and reports that more seizures are planned, represent an aggressive escalation in the brutal economic and military warfare unleashed against the country. Economic strangulation is intensifying. The country can’t afford a disruption of its oil trade, as oil exports make up 90% of the country’s export revenue. In an urgent Dec. 12 press release, the Center for Economic and Policy Research warned of the dire consequences for the general population, should this last operational revenue stream be cut off, auguring economic collapse.
CEPR quotes from a Dec. 11 Wall Street Journal report that tanker traffic has already been disrupted just by the threat of future seizures. As of Dec. 11, a dozen tankers were seen idling off the country’s main oil port, but none of them entered it to load crude oil. Under normal circumstances, multiple tankers would be seen docking or conducting ship-to-ship transfers.
Add to this U.S. President Donald Trump’s Dec. 11 Oval Office threat to begin land strikes “very soon” against Venezuela, although he later specified that these wouldn’t necessarily occur just against Venezuela, but against any grouping or country trafficking drugs to the U.S. The goal is to go after the “horrible people” responsible for such action, he elaborated. In a Dec. 12 interview with ABC News Michael Ballard, intelligence director for Global Guardian security firm, said he’d be surprised if Trump didn’t order land strikes as early as next week, and identified the Venezuelan-Colombian border as a likely location. This is where the Colombian narco-terrorist ELN and FARC dissidents are transiting cocaine across the border, he said.
Likely targets would be drug-processing centers, cocaine labs, clandestine airstrips and boat landings, Ballard said, but ruled out any deployment of U.S. ground troops to Venezuela simply because the U.S. lacks the troops to occupy a country like Venezuela. There could be very small tactical strike teams deployed “to take out Maduro or others,” but nothing more. As for ABC’s question, “what does the U.S. get out of this?” Ballard replied in geopolitical terms. “It’s a message to Russia, China and Iran: The Western Hemisphere is our hemisphere, we’re going to influence it more than you, we’re going to reassert dominance in it.” Secondly, the U.S. doesn’t want an openly hostile government in the region that could “act as a beachfront for Russia, China or Iran,” which are already supporting the Maduro government.
