The US Seizes a Tanker, Replaying an Old Script
The United States' boarding of the Veronica III in the Indian Ocean, a tanker that had reportedly fled an earlier US blockade against Venezuela, presents as a simple act of law enforcement. The mainstream narrative suggests a rogue vessel defying international norms, validating the intervention. This framing, however, meticulously omits the decades-long economic assault that necessitated such
desperate evasion. This is not an isolated incident but a direct continuation of Washington's foreign policy toolkit, mirroring the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Guatemala against Jacobo Árbenz, primarily driven by the United Fruit Company's interests, or the 2019 OAS-backed coup in Bolivia against Evo Morales after he nationalized resources. Venezuela, holding the world's largest proven oil reserves,
has been under a sustained US sanctions regime since 2017. These measures have cost the Venezuelan economy over $600 billion by 2022, according to the UN's independent expert Alena Douhan, and are directly responsible for a 99% drop in government revenue since 2014, making basic imports like medicine and food nearly impossible. While Western media decries Venezuela's economic woes, the role of US
actions in creating these conditions is consistently downplayed. The capture of President Nicolas Maduro, cited in the Al Jazeera report as occurring the same day the tanker left, directly references a $15 million bounty placed on his head by the Trump administration in 2020. This conflates a politically motivated target with a legitimate legal framework, turning a sovereign leader into a criminal