<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-container gmail-content-width3">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<font size="1"><a href="https://orinocotribune.com/the-naval-siege-at-the-center-of-us-strategy-against-venezuela/">https://orinocotribune.com/the-naval-siege-at-the-center-of-us-strategy-against-venezuela/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Naval Siege at the Center of US Strategy Against Venezuela</h1>By Ernesto Cazal – Jun 25, 2020</div><div class="gmail-content"><div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p id="gmail-1039"><span>The
scenario of economic-financial-commercial suffocation that the United
States government has imposed on the Bolivarian republic of Venezuela is
one more piece of the puzzle in the unrestricted war strategy it is
carrying out against the country in the Caribbean Basin.</span></p><p id="gmail-f09a"><span>To
be more precise, it has repercussions on the navigation chart of
Venezuelan ships or those that have commercial and other relationships
with the Venezuelan state and private companies. To support such a
suffocating agenda, the US Navy has a multiple deployment operation in
all parts of the planet, which works as a military and mobile police
stationed for naval and military operations of different types.</span></p><p id="gmail-9478"><span>“By
sea we can get to the place more quickly, stay there for longer, carry
everything we need with us and we do not have to ask anyone for
permission,” reads the </span><span><a href="https://www.navy.mil/local/maritime/CS21R-Spanish.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">21st Century Cooperation Strategy for the Naval Force</a></span><span> of the gringo Navy.</span></p><p id="gmail-54b0"><span>The
full-spectrum doctrine of the Pentagon provides immunity for itself and
for its most trusted allies, and a military restriction on everything
that sails with flags sanctioned by the Treasury Department or that
threatens in a military way its outlined plans, as well as those of the
White House.</span></p><p id="gmail-7b1e"><span>Venezuela
has been harassed in recent years with this strategy, which, with the
blockade dictated by Washington and the consequences it provokes, plus
other operations in favor of “regime change”, draw a fence on the high
seas and on the shores of the Caribbean coast.</span></p><p id="gmail-f48c"><span><strong>The main objective: the oil industry</strong></span></p><p id="gmail-7d9b"><span>Recently,</span> <span><a href="https://lta.reuters.com/articulo/venezuela-petroleo-sanciones-idLTAKBN23V24G" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer"><em>Reuters</em></a></span><span> agency <a href="https://lta.reuters.com/articulo/venezuela-petroleo-sanciones-idLTAKBN23V24G" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">reported</a>
that cargoes of oil ready to be marketed “have been trapped” for almost
two months on the high seas because “world refineries shun oil from the
South American country to avoid falling into US sanctions, according to
industry sources, PDVSA documents and shipping data.”</span></p><p id="gmail-705b"><span>PDVSA’s oil exports are Washington’s main target.</span></p><p id="gmail-6081"><span>At
the same time that the Treasury Department is blacklisting ships and
merchants involved in the trade and transportation of Venezuelan oil, it
is threatening to add more to its list of “sanctioned” entities.</span></p><p id="e305"><span><em>Reuters</em></span><span> cites the Refinitiv Eikon data:</span></p><blockquote><p id="gmail-1219"><span>“At
least 16 oil tankers carrying 18.1 million barrels of Venezuelan oil
are trapped in waters around the world, while buyers avoid them to avoid
sanctions. That equates to almost two months of production at
Venezuela’s current production rate.”</span></p></blockquote><div><div><div><img alt="The Naval Siege at the Center of US Strategy Against Venezuela" src="https://i2.wp.com/miro.medium.com/max/1364/1*W7h4lWS0abhXnivtT5q_zg.png?resize=620%2C403&ssl=1" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="461" height="300">PDVSA is at the center of the American war strategy. Photo: Carlos García Rawlins / Reuters</div></div></div><p id="gmail-68c7"><span>The
agency says that some of the boats “have been at sea for more than six
months and have sailed to various ports but have been unable to unload.
Oil cargoes are seldom loaded without a buyer. Those who are in the
water without having anyone to buy them generally sell at a discount.”</span></p><p id="e68d"><span>The
financial burden on each oil tanker adds up to large losses as the
daily delay in unloading crude continues. The cost of a ship that
carries Venezuelan oil is at least $ 30,000 a day.</span></p><p id="gmail-2d5a"><span>Oil
companies that have PDVSA as a client have been unable to find a buyer
due to unilateral coercive measures. “Even long-standing PDVSA clients
are struggling to complete transactions that are allowed under
sanctions, for debt repayment or food exchange,” an executive told </span><span><em>Reuters</em></span><span> on condition of anonymity</span>.</p><p id="gmail-61e5"><span>This
is a critical situation for Venezuelan exports, at a time when most
oil-producing countries continue to struggle to trade their high
inventories in an oversupplied market.</span></p><p id="gmail-3e96"><span>All this helps the United States to reduce the appetite of many buyers for Venezuelan oil.</span></p><p id="gmail-0e72"><span>Basically
what the Donald Trump government has achieved is to mount a naval siege
on the high seas on the Venezuelan crude oil trade, preventing the
state led by Nicolás Maduro from stocking up on foreign exchange to
supply essential goods and services to its population, while undermining
the oil industry managed by PDVSA.</span></p><p id="gmail-6e67"><span>That
goal was clear from the start, when Trump decided to issue an executive
order last year that deepened the picture of economic, financial and
trade “sanctions” against Venezuela. The latest events just confirm that
thesis.</span></p><p id="gmail-2b6a"><span><strong>A blow to Venezuela’s commercial and technological cooperation</strong></span></p><p id="gmail-295d"><span>A
month ago, when the first ships from Iran were crossing the Atlantic to
the Caribbean coast to supply gasoline and technology to the Venezuelan
oil industry, the United States spokesmen had threatened to prevent
them from unloading through US Navy harassment against the Iranian
tankers.</span></p><p id="gmail-8b7f"><span>But
it is one thing to intimidate a single country and another to do it
against two, especially if one of them controls the Strait of Hormuz,
the main commercial oil artery of the world, where one in five barrels
of oil in the world pass through daily. That is why the freighters
arrived to dock at their destination without problems beyond poorly
executed psychological operations.</span></p><p id="gmail-2242"><span>In
this case, due to the emerging dynamics in which there is a rising bloc
that challenges Anglo-imperial hegemony, effectiveness subordinated to
Washington’s interests in relation to the sanctioning strategy was not
permitted.</span></p><p id="e8c8"><span>But
what happens with other countries and companies worldwide is a very
different case. Take, for example, the Venezuelan crude freighters that
set sail for Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia or Togo, countries where the
US presence is very strong and have been unable to buy oil produced by
PDVSA as a result of unilateral coercive measures by the White House and
the naval surveillance of the Navy in those latitudes.</span></p><div><div><div><div><img alt="The Naval Siege at the Center of US Strategy Against Venezuela" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/3080/0*tOsEckO2dODfT58g" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="461" height="307">Craig Faller, head of the Southern Command, meets with Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil. Photo: Southern Command</div></div></div></div><p id="gmail-6bd0"><span>It
is in these cases that coordination between the Navy and the United
States Department of the Treasury is imposed, even if informally.</span></p><p id="gmail-f8b5"><span>Due to this strategy, just until February 2020, Venezuela calculated $ 116 billion in losses from the blockade.</span></p><p id="gmail-d6fb"><span><strong>Provocations</strong></span></p><p id="gmail-8854"><span>In
view of the latest events, we can conclude that the much-announced
naval blockade against Venezuela sponsored by the Trump administration
has been unofficially deployed. It no longer works frontally </span><span><a href="https://medium.com/@misionverdad2012/bloqueo-naval-de-1902-en-venezuela-una-aproximaci%C3%B3n-hist%C3%B3rica-del-presente-1b45a46d5665" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as in 1902</a></span><span>
, in which German, English and Italian ships encircled the country then
chaired by Cipriano Castro, or even as they did against Cuba in the
1960s, when the United States determined that island sovereignty it
could not be erected in its “backyard”.</span></p><p id="gmail-4dd2"><span>A new phase of escalation in the naval blockade began in early April with </span><span><a href="https://medium.com/@misionverdad2012/washington-muestra-los-dientes-inicia-otro-abril-de-resistencia-bba19616e085" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the “anti-drug operations” deployed in the Western Hemisphere</a></span><span>
of the US Navy, opening a space for large-scale psychological
operations in the Caribbean and for the coordination of forces and
intelligence of the Southern Command with partner countries of the
Pentagon, especially Colombia and Brazil.</span></p><p id="gmail-4ad5"><span>In
this context, the navigation of a US Navy destroyer ship near the
Venezuelan coasts on Tuesday, June 23, must also be understood, which
General Vladimir Padrino López, Venezuelan Defense Minister, </span><span><a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/venezuela-califica-de--provocaci%C3%B3n--que-buque-de-la-armada-eeuu-navegara-cerca-de-sus-costas/45859186" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">describes as “an act of provocation ”</a></span><span> .</span></p><p id="gmail-f690"><span>Padrino
López warned that if US ship operations occur in Venezuelan waters,
there will be a “forceful” response from the Bolivarian National Armed
Forces. “Do not dare to navigate in our jurisdictional waters with your
war ships, to exercise military operations,” added the general.</span></p><p id="gmail-41c1"><span>Although
provocations are a tactic that the US army often uses against its
adversaries, crossing foreign maritime boundaries not only in the
Caribbean but in other parts of the world (such as the South China Sea
or the Persian Gulf itself) generally gringo generals authorize this
type of operations to collect intelligence information and disturb the
opponent. Under what objectives: military, commercial or even both?</span></p><p id="gmail-49fe"><span>Undoubtedly,
the pressure of the Southern Command and its destroyers prowling around
the Caribbean, combined with the strategy of the Treasury Department,
draw a fence on high and on the shores of the coasts that puts the
Bolivarian Republic on alert and economically injures the majority of
Venezuela’s population.</span></p><br></div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>