Good day all. Things have been getting rather spicy over the last few months since President Trump had the War Department start using Narco boats for target practice. Three groups have become upset with this and with seizing oil tankers. Democrats, Drug Cartels and President Maduro.
Now it isn’t every tanker that’s being seized. The Trump administration is actually going after the what is being called the “Ghost Fleet.” These are ships, primarily tankers, that are smuggling oil from embargoed nations to embargoed nations. These ships either turn off their tracking systems or fix them to give false data.
However, these ships are what is keeping Maduro afloat, so to speak, and losing them is affecting his bank account. Maduro has been making lots of noises and threats that no one is taking all that seriously. However, he’s decided to show how tough he is by passing a law that makes it illegal to seize his illegal ships and blockade Venezuela. Here are the details from Newsmax:
Venezuela’s ruling-party controlled National Assembly unanimously approved ?a law on Tuesday that allows prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes or finances what it describes as piracy or blockades.
The law, which includes “other international crimes,” comes after recent U.S. actions against Venezuelan oil shipments.
I assume that means using the Cartel’s Narco-boats for target practice? Now the amusing part is the term “International Crimes.” There is no such thing. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Maduro Regime is contemplating whining to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Good luck with that. The United States doesn’t recognize the ICC and has a literal law on the books regarding any actions by the ICC against the United States and more recently, our allies who are also not part of the ICC. (That would be Israel) The law has a nice formal name to it, but the nickname is the Invade the Hague Act. If the ICC were to grab an American serviceman, the President has the legal authorization to send in troops to rescue him or her, and also to break all the nice things in the Hague.
The draft “Law to Guarantee Freedom of Navigation and Commerce Against Piracy, Blockades, and Other International Illicit Acts” was introduced on Monday by pro-government lawmaker Giuseppe ?Alessandrello. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said at the end of the session the bill will be sent to the executive for approval and will take effect once published in the Official Gazette.
Maduro says the United States is seeking to undermine Venezuela’s economy and remove him from power.
Well, he has that right at least. We want Maduro gone and breaking the economy is one way to pressure the tyrant to leave.
Rodriguez also blasted Venezuela’s political opposition, whose leader has been in hiding for months but traveled to Oslo earlier December to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.
She has been in hiding because Maduro’s thugs intend to murder her.
He accused the opposition of promoting sanctions ?and said they “stole, plundered, bowed down to U.S. imperialism,” adding that “they are happy with the aggressive actions currently taking place in the Caribbean Sea.
I wonder how much money the Cartels have been paying him? I can see why the Opposition is fine with the seizures of the Grey Fleet oil tankers. There is also something else going on that I wasn’t aware of. Back when Hugo Chavez basically made himself president for life, one of the things he did was seize all the private corporate oil fields and equipment. The oil companies sued and won. However, there was no attempt to recover the judgments.
Until now that is.
Last Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump posted a striking message on Truth Social calling for a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. In the post, Trump cited asset theft, terrorism, and human trafficking, and asserted that Venezuela should be treated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Based on the wording of Trump’s post, particularly his demand that Venezuela “return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” the most plausible reference is the 2007 expropriation of U.S. oil assets by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
At that time, oil prices were rising and Chávez’s government nationalized major oil projects operated by foreign companies, including ConocoPhillips, which was my employer at that time. The company had invested heavily in the country and its stakes in three large ventures—Petrozuata, Hamaca, and Corocoro—were seized without compensation.
This is what all communists do. The steal everything that isn’t nailed down and pull up everything that is.
For those of us working in the industry at the time, it was an event that reshaped how companies viewed business risks in Venezuela. What began as a corporate dispute became one of the largest unresolved U.S. claims against a foreign government.
To date, the Trump administration has take two tankers and is looking at a third. There have been calls in Congress to go full 18th century and issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private citizens. This is something that Congress has to do as it is under their authority per the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 reads:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Senator Mike Lee, (R-Utah), has introduces legislation to authorize the issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private individuals and businesses authorizing them to go after Venezuelan tankers as well as the property and assets of the Drug Cartels. Now when a group is authorized with a Letter of Marque, they’re called Privateers. Basically, they are government licensed pirates.
Now privateering was supposedly banned under the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law in 1856. Would you care to guess which country did NOT sign the agreement? That’s right, the United States, while it has followed the agreement, has never signed the agreement. (Since it would go against the Constitution, any such agreement would be invalid under American law)
When I first heard about Senator Lee’s bill, I was trying to figure out how a PMC, (Private Military Contractor), could profit from grabbing Cartel Narco boats. Now going after Venezuelan oil tankers is another matter all together. If Privateers grab a loaded tanker, they can sell the oil and the ship. After the split with the U.S. Government, and the oil companies seeking compensation, they could walk away with millions of dollars. I know several people who would love to put something together and have the ability to do so. Arrr me hearty.
As for the Venezuelan law? I can see them trying to enforce it if Privateers are going after their oil tankers and any assets they can get from the Cartels. They would see them as soft targets, unlike the United States military. I could seem them making examples of any privateers they actually caught. On the flip side, Privateers have never been known throughout history of playing by the Marquess of Queensberry Rules.
In the end, this law they’re working on won’t amount to a hill of beans. They can’t enforce it against the United States Military and until the bill put forward by Senator Lee is actually passed and signed into law, we won’t be seeing privateers any time soon.
Thatisall
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