I am not sure what it will take for it to sink in that the United States is not playing games when it comes to the quarantine around Venezuela.
After Trump issued the quarantine, several ships were seized, but the issue has been raised again.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that yet another tanker has been boarded and seized.
In mid-December, Trump announced there would be a "complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.”
Trump also started to move more military assets into the area to enforce the quarantine on Venezuelan oil.
Most would consider a blockade to be an act of war, but Marine Corps Col. Steve Ganyard, a former State Department official, said this was a quarantine, not a blockade, and it was perfectly legal in international waters.
Whatever jargon you want to use, it was clear that any tankers that violated this order would be seized and taken by the United States.
US officials then explained that this “quarantine” was being used to put pressure on the Maduro regime.
Trump has made it quite clear that he wants Maduro out, and strangling the biggest economic producer of the country seemed like the last confrontational way to make this happen.
The administration official stated, "The efforts so far have put tremendous pressure on Maduro, and the belief is that by late January, Venezuela will be facing an economic calamity unless it agrees to make significant concessions to the U.S.”
At that point, two tankers had already been seized, and a Venezuelan official responded, "The threat is not Venezuela. The threat is the U.S. government."
This week, it was announced that the military had boarded the Aquila II.
Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on X, "When the @DeptofWar says quarantine, we mean it. Nothing will stop DoW from defending our Homeland — even in oceans halfway around the world.”
He continued, “Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility."
The department published footage of the “hunt” and seizure, as well as a warning to anyone thinking of coming into the area that there is a risk of seizure for violating the quarantine. It is just a nice reminder to the rest of the world that we are still the most formidable military in the world, and when a threat is made, it will be backed up.
