In what is seen in some quarters as an extension of the United States’ ‘friends and foes’ foreign policy posture towards Latin American and Caribbean nations arising out of their respective perceived political postures, companies involved in the business of transporting oil from producing countries to markets across the world are now coming under unmistakable and aggressive pressure to steer clear of doing business with the South American oil giant, Venezuela.
Seemingly by the edict of the US foreign policy choreographers in Washington, vessels involved in moving Venezuela’s oil to markets are now being openly designated as “rogue tankers” for the reason that they help frustrate the Trump administration’s efforts to build financial pressure on the administration in Caracas to demit office.
The imposition of such ‘sanctions’, as they are called, are heavily supported by data gleaned from mandatory tracking systems which vessels are obliged to deploy and which, a recent report says, has identified two hundred and fourteen (214) vessels that have visited Venezuela in the year since US sanctions were imposed.