The Fort Worth Press - Venezuela seeks to jail backers of US oil blockade

The country already has a similar law for those who back sanctions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Washington and dozens of other capitals consider his last two re-elections to have been stolen.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose whereabouts are unknown since she left hiding to travel to Oslo where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, has spoken in favor of sanctions and a US Caribbean naval deployment Maduro fears seeks to unseat him.

Maduro's party holds an absolute majority in the unicameral National Assembly, which on Monday unanimously approved the bill on a first reading.

The "law to guarantee freedom of navigation and trade in the face of piracy, blockades, and other international illicit acts” was proposed shortly after US forces on Saturday seized a second tanker transporting Venezuelan crude.

US President Donald Trump on December 16 declared a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil vessels sailing to and from the South American country.

It was the latest salvo in an escalating standoff that started 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 alleges, without showing evidence, were transporting drugs.

More than 100 people have been killed -- some of them fishermen, according to their families and governments.

Trump claims Caracas under Maduro is using oil money to finance "drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping."

The bill before Venezuela's parliament provides for prison terms of 15 to 20 years for people promoting or supporting such blockades, or fines of over a million dollars.

It also proposes "protection" for commercial operators, including provision of state-sponsored legal counsel.

Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019. It produces about a million barrels of crude per day.

It sells most on the black market at steep discounts.

Maduro has claimed Washington wants to oust him and take Venezuela's oil, which Trump says the United States wants "back" after the seizure of US assets after a nationalization drive in 2007.

Trump said Monday it would be "smart" for Maduro to step down, even as Russia pledged "full support" for Venezuela.

W.Knight--TFWP