Democracy Now! US Seizes Venezuelan Oil Tanker as Anti-Maduro Campaign Escalates

Dec 11, 2025 | U.S. troops seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, a major escalation that the Venezuelan government called "international piracy." We speak with New York University professor Alejandro Velasco about the Trump administration's intentions in the country, which has the world's largest known oil reserves. Though the Pentagon has claimed the conflict is aimed at combating narcoterrorism, Velasco says the violence is actually an effort "to get rid of leftist governments in the region.

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Venezuelan Nobel Laureate Backs US Seizure of Oil Tanker

THE GUARDIAN: María Corina Machado says action was ‘very necessary step’ to confront Nicolás Maduro’s ‘criminal’ regime

Venezuela’s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado, has said she supports the US seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, calling it a “very necessary step” to confront Nicolás Maduro’s “criminal” regime.

Speaking in Oslo on Thursday, a day after she was honoured for her “tireless” struggle for democratic change, Machado praised the US navy and coastguard helicopter raid on the vessel.
Machado said the huge oil wealth of Venezuela – which has the world’s largest proven reserves – had not been used by Maduro’s dictatorship to fund hospitals or feed impoverished teachers or improve security. Rather, his regime had used it to buy weapons that were used to repress its opponents. “So yes, these criminals have to be stopped and cutting the resources of illegal activities is a very necessary step,” Machado told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Machado said her arrival in Oslo marked a “historic turning point” that showed Venezuelans “the world is with them”. » | Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro, Miranda Bryant , and Camille Rodríguez Montilla in Oslo | Thursday, December 11, 2025

Yes, the world is with the Venezuelans. But that doesn’t mean that the world wants to see Venezuela’s rich oil assets being transferred to the Trumps! Toppling one dictator by another, one authoritarian by another is also no solution! Further, it is puzzling to me why the Norwegians have decided to bestow the peace prize on a person who is hell-bent on overthrowing a régime! Is this a prize for fostering peace or a prize for fostering democracy?

I should like to add that whilst I fully understand María Corina Machado’s strong desire for liberty and democracy, she should be careful that she and her country don’t jump from the frying pan into the fire! — © Mark Alexander