parliament of Venezuela. Photo: Reuters (file)
CARACAS:
Venezuela’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday that carries long prison terms for any national who supports a blockade of United States oil tankers Caracas has labeled piracy.
The country already has a similar law for those who support sanctions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Washington and dozens of other capitals consider his last two re-elections stolen.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose whereabouts have been unknown since she went into hiding to travel to Oslo where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, has spoken out in favor of sanctions and the deployment of the US navy in the Caribbean, fearing Maduro is seeking to topple him.
The law was passed unanimously on Tuesday by Maduro’s party, which holds an absolute majority in the one-seat National Assembly.
The “Act to Guarantee Freedom of Navigation and Commerce in the Face of Piracy, Blockades and Other International Unlawful Acts” was proposed shortly after a second US crude oil tanker was seized on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump on December 16 declared a “total and complete embargo” on sanctioned oil vessels sailing to and from the South American country.
It was the latest jump in an escalating standoff that began in September with a massive naval deployment for what Washington called an anti-narcotics operation.
US forces have since launched dozens of strikes on boats that Washington claims, without evidence, were carrying drugs.
More than 100 people have been killed — some of them fishermen, according to their families and their governments.
Trump claims Caracas under Maduro is using oil money to fund “narco-terrorism, human trafficking, assassinations and kidnappings.”
The new law carries prison terms of 15 to 20 years for people who promote or support such boycotts or fines of more than a million dollars.
It also allows for “protection” for commercial operators, including the provision of state-sponsored legal advice.
Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019. It produces about one million barrels of crude per day.
He sells most on the black market at deep discounts.
Maduro has claimed Washington wants to oust him and take Venezuela’s oil, which Trump says the United States wants “back” after seizing American assets following a 2007 nationalization attempt.
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