Gringo Piracy in the Caribbean
PressTV Interview with Peter Koenig
Background
Venezuela has strongly condemned the US seizure of an oil tanker off the country’s coast in the Caribbean, calling the move an act of international piracy. Diosdado Cabello Rondón, Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, said the real reasons behind the prolonged aggression against Caracas have now been exposed. He said fighting drug trafficking is just a justification. Cabello said the reason has always been about Venezuela’s natural wealth, its oil, its energy, and the resources that belong solely to the Venezuelan people. He added that Caracas will appeal the seizure to all available international bodies. The condemnation follows a statement by US President Donald Trump, announcing the seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
PressTV Iran: Trump said, US military forces conducted a large-scale operation to seize the oil tanker, without offering any more details. U-S Attorney General Pam posted the video of the seizure on social media, claiming that the vessel had been involved in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.
She also alleged that the tanker was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. Reacting to the seizure, Iran’s Embassy in Caracas has expressed solidarity with Venezuela and condemned the U-S takeover of the vessel as an act of piracy.
The Iranian embassy called it a violation of Venezuela’s national sovereignty and a blatant breach of international laws. Trump recently threatened Venezuela with an imminent land invasion, accusing the country of aiding the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States which Caracas denies.
————–
PressTV: Mr. Koenig, what is going on here?
What legal possibilities does Venezuela have to claim its vessel back?
>PK response:
This is clearly a crime on High Sea; it could be a modern version of the movie series Pirates of the Caribbean.
Seriously. Mr. Trump has way passed the Rules-based-order, also invented by the ever-domineering west, and has gone to the “Trump-based Order” – making local as well as international laws as he sees fit.
Storming by helicopter and taking over a Venezuela Oil tanker is a crime of first degree. The problem is, will the Venezuelan government find an international Court that is willing to take on their case, not being afraid of sanctions from Trump, and as you know sanctions can take all kinds of very nasty forms – or will they just bow to the United States, or to Trump’s will?
What other means, legal or political, does Mr. Maduro have to claim back the oil vessel? – If he has not already done so, which I believe he has – he may want to consult with his closest allies, China and Russia.
It is no secret, I believe to no one in the world, that the real reason for wanting to take over Venezuela are her enormous hydrocarbon reserves and other immeasurable natural resources.
What is amazing, that while protests can be heard, nobody, but nobody intervenes, not from the west, nor from the east. International “silence” so to speak, the non-interference – gives Trump Carte Blache to do whatever he wants and wherever he wants. And it is OK. – Or is it? Cleary not.
The contradiction glares in your eyes: President Trump just a few days ago pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras, who is a known and proven drug dealer. He was convicted in the U.S. of being a major international drug trafficker, who helped flood the US with 500 tons of cocaine.
In a nutshell: On 8 March 2024, Hernández was convicted of three counts of drug trafficking and weapons conspiracy, and on 26 June of that year, he was sentenced to 45 years of prison. On 1 December 2025, he was released from prison after being formally pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Yet, Trump pursues Venezuela for major drug trafficking and networking of terrorism, without any proof.
The U-S Attorney General, Ms. Pam, as well as Trump’s War Minister, Pete Hegseth, are all part of Trump’s entourage. They will not contradict their master, even if they think something may be not quite right.
That is submission to the bully, for respect — or for fear?
The world lets Trump get away with murder. Literally. Through his war Minister, Pete Hegseth, within the last couple of months he has killed more than 100 innocent people by blowing up their boats in the Caribbean – under the pretext they were drug smugglers. Killed without trial, without justice, because the self-styled emperor orders it.
Our civilization has fallen back into pre-Middle Ages, when killing was a matter of being the “stronger”.
Well, today, a braindead society buys anything. And, indeed may become a pre-Middle Age populous. See this
https://www.globalresearch.ca/thinking-capacity-damaged-covid-mrna-vaccines/5908325
It may be part of this epoch of Dystopia – the 2030 Agenda – the world passes through right now.
This Epoch of Dystopia, George Orwell’s “1984” prediction, is not “sustainable”. to use one of the elite’s “passwords”, and, therefore, will not succeed.
And Trump will not succeed conquering Venezuela.
——
Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.