China and Russia have expressed support for Venezuela as it confronts a US blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, while Donald Trump continues to ramp up his pressure campaign on the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Amid reports of slowing activity at Venezuelan ports, the US president again called for Maduro to leave power, and reiterated that the US would keep or sell the oil it had seized off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.
Asked if the goal was to force Maduro from power, Trump told reporters: “I think it’d be smart for him to do that,” before adding “if he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.”
After Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela last week, tanker loading at the country’s ports has slowed, with most ships moving oil cargoes only between domestic ports, according to the Reuters news agency. The number of loaded tankers that have not departed has increased in recent days, leaving millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil stuck on board ships, while customers demand deeper discounts and contract changes to take risky voyages beyond the country’s waters.
China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that the seizure of another country’s ships was a serious violation of international law, after the US intercepted a China-bound oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast on Saturday.
The tanker, which the White House said was part of Venezuela’s shadow fleet and carrying sanctioned oil, was not currently sanctioned by the US. However, Panama’s foreign minister said that the supertanker, Centuries, which was flying Panama’s flag when intercepted on Saturday, did not respect the country’s maritime rules and had altered its name and disconnected its transponder while carrying an oil cargo out of Venezuela.
Venezuela has the right to develop relations with other countries, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily press briefing, adding that China opposes all “unilateral and illegal” sanctions.
China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude, which accounts for roughly 4% of its oil imports.
Later on Monday, the foreign ministers of Russia and Venezuela criticised the US actions, which have also included strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats and, on Sunday, the targeting of a third tanker.
The Russian foreign ministry said Yván Gil and Sergei Lavrov expressed their “deep concern over the escalation of Washington’s actions in the Caribbean Sea, which could have serious consequences for the region and threaten international shipping.
“The Russian side reaffirmed its full support for and solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in the current context,” the statement read.
The empty supertanker Bella 1, which the US coast guard tried to intercept on Sunday when the ship approached Venezuela, was drifting on Monday north-east of Bermuda in the Caribbean, a satellite image obtained by TankerTrackers.com showed.
A US official told Reuters on Sunday the tanker had not been boarded.
Trump claims Venezuela, under Maduro, is using oil money to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping”. US forces have since September launched strikes on boats that Washington claims, without evidence, have trafficked drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. More than 100 people have been killed – some of them fishermen, according to their families and governments.
Caracas, in turn, fears Washington is seeking regime change, and has accused Washington of “international piracy”.
On Monday, Maduro fired back at Trump, saying the US president would be “better off” focusing on domestic issues rather than threatening Caracas, in a speech broadcast on television.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse