Venezuela is not a diversified economy. Oil exports generate
the bulk of its foreign exchange, fund public services, and pay for essential
imports. Intercepting tankers is therefore not about legal compliance; it is
about choking the economy into submission. When financial strangulation is
designed to produce political collapse, it crosses from diplomacy into
coercion—what many rightly describe as economic terrorism.
The justification offered by Washington is familiar -
sanctions are portrayed as tools to restore democracy and punish alleged
wrongdoing. Yet the outcomes tell a different story. Years of sanctions have
neither produced regime change nor improved governance. Instead, they have
devastated living standards, disrupted fuel supplies, and weakened healthcare
and food security. Political elites adapt; ordinary citizens absorb the shock.
More troubling is the international silence. The seizure of
commercial shipments bound for third countries raises serious questions under
international law, yet few Western capitals have voiced concern. This selective
outrage exposes a deeper truth, rules-based order often bends when great power
interests are involved. Actions condemned as piracy if undertaken by rivals are
quietly normalized when executed by Washington.
There is also a broader pattern at play. From Iran to
Venezuela, energy-producing states that resist US strategic preferences face
sanctions, asset freezes, and trade blockades. The message is unmistakable -
control over energy flows remains central to geopolitical power. Democracy
rhetoric provides cover, but energy dominance appears to be the underlying
driver.
Ironically, such pressure often entrenches the very systems
it claims to oppose. Economic siege fuels nationalism, strengthens hardliners,
and closes political space. It also pushes targeted states toward alternative
trading networks, accelerating the fragmentation of the global economic
order—an outcome that ultimately weakens US influence rather than consolidates
it.
For Venezuela, continued economic suffocation offers no path
to stability or reform. For the world, accepting unilateral seizures as normal
practice sets a dangerous precedent. If regime change pursued through economic
destruction becomes an accepted tool of statecraft, global trade itself becomes
hostage to power politics.
History suggests a simple lesson: coercion may punish, but
it rarely persuades.
