Pirates Of The Caribbean?

Dec 12th 2025:Pirates Of The Caribbean? The Trump administration is ramping up the pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  In the same week that Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was smuggled out of the country to enable her to go to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace prize, the U.S. seized a sanctioned VLCC laden with Venezuelan crude, reportedly heading for China.  This represented a sharp escalation of the maximum pressure campaign, which already involves a wide array of sanctions targeting Venezuela’s state, its oil sector, financial system and President Maduro’s inner circle.  Since early September 2025, the U.S. Southern Command has also conducted at least 21 strikes on Venezuela-linked vessels suspected of drug smuggling.  President Trump has repeatedly urged his counterpart, Nicolas Maduro to leave the country, but so far, the Venezuelan leader has been defiant.  For obvious reasons, this latest escalation has caught the attention of the oil and tanker markets.  The seizing of an oil tanker raises the risk of disruptions in both oil supply and tanker movements. Please fill in below form to continue read.