US 'Intercepts' Third Vessel Because Free Trade is Only for Us
The US military, according to The Independent, has once again 'intercepted' a vessel near Venezuela—the third in quick succession. This isn't 'counter-narcotics operations' when you're choking a nation's economy. This is a de facto naval blockade, pure and simple, aimed squarely at a sovereign nation the US doesn't much care for, allegedly to combat drug trafficking (a convenient cover story).
Forget international law; the US routinely flexes its naval muscle to dictate which countries get to sell their resources and to whom. Venezuelan oil, much like Iranian oil, remains an 'illicit' commodity if it bypasses Washington's preferred distribution channels. These 'intercepts' are less about drug interdiction and more about economic strangulation and projecting dominance in a region the US
still considers its backyard. How many naval incursions does it take to destabilize a government you label 'authoritarian' while actively undermining its economy?