Making Sense of Donald Trump’s Venezuela Blockade |
On December 10, the United States Coast Guard seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela for its alleged role in transporting Venezuelan oil in violation of American economic sanctions. Six days later, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce his intent to implement a “total blockade” of all “sanctioned oil tankers” attempting to enter or depart Venezuela, which constitutes the first unilateral blockade undertaken by the United States since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In the following days, the Coast Guard seized a second tanker as it was departing Venezuela and announced that it was in active pursuit of a third vessel. In justifying these operations, Trump claimed that “the illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping” and demanded that assets stolen by the Venezuelan regime “must be returned to the United States IMMEDIATELY.”
These developments marked the latest in a long stretch of escalatory military actions taken by the Trump administration against Venezuela in recent months, which include over 20 airstrikes targeting suspected drug boats allegedly trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean as part of a military buildup in the region. The White House has accused Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro of supporting narco-terrorism and the spread of drugs to the United States, and Trump has called for Maduro to relinquish his power and flee Venezuela.
The target of this blockade is the so-called “dark fleet” of ships that carry oil and other contents otherwise subject to sanctions or seizure. Roughly 20 percent of all global oil tankers are used to smuggle oil from countries under international sanctions, with 10 percent of these ships exclusively carrying Venezuelan oil. Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest crude oil reserves, saw its oil industry sanctioned by the first Trump administration in 2019, which led to more than a 50 percent reduction in the country’s daily crude oil exports by the end of the year. However, Venezuela’s use of the dark fleet to transport oil to international markets has buoyed its oil industry, with the country exporting roughly 952,000 barrels per day in November 2025—up from 495,000 in late 2019.
The blockade would not completely stop Venezuelan oil exports, as only about 40 percent of the dark fleet ships servicing Venezuela are currently subject to US sanctions. However, it could dramatically reduce Venezuela’s capacity to ship oil overseas and force its state-run oil company to dramatically slow production to prevent the country from exceeding its storage capacity. There were over 30 sanctioned vessels in or near Venezuela