US Decries 'Blockade' While Imposing One on Venezuela
In 2020, President Trump declared a 'total and complete blockade' on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers. CBS described this escalation as 'heaping pressure' on Nicolás Maduro, carefully omitting the inconvenient truth that blockades, economic or otherwise, are universally condemned when deployed by anyone *but* the US. (Remember the US outrage over the 2007-2021 land, air, and sea blockade on Gaza?
Neither do we.) This isn't about 'sanctions' or 'democracy'; it's about control. The US, which routinely decries any interference with global shipping lanes (when it's not the one interfering), has a long, storied history of using blockades as a tool of regime change, from Cuba to Iran. The hypocrisy isn't just a feature, it's the entire operating system of US foreign policy. One might wonder, how
many civilian populations must suffer 'complete blockades' before the 'rules-based international order' applies to its architects?