President Nicolas Maduro speaks in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.Image: keystone
December 22, 2025, 8:30 p.mDecember 22, 2025, 8:35 p.m
Given the massive military presence of the United States in the Caribbean and US Coast Guard operations against sanctioned oil tankers in the region, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has warned of consequences for international markets. “Energy must not become a weapon of war,” said Maduro in a letter to the member states of the United Nations, which Foreign Minister Yván Gil read out at a press conference.
“If the unilateral use of force, the execution of civilians, piracy and the plundering of the resources of sovereign states are tolerated, the world is heading towards a global confrontation of unpredictable proportions.”
Nicolás Maduro in his letter
The authoritarian head of state condemned the US attacks on suspected drug smuggling boats, which have killed over 100 people in recent months, and the blockade of oil tankers on the way to or from Venezuela. “If the unilateral use of force, the execution of civilians, piracy and the plunder of the resources of sovereign states are tolerated, the world is heading towards a global confrontation of unpredictable proportions,” the letter said.
The US Coast Guard recently seized two oil tankers in the Caribbean. Since Sunday, media reports have also been tracking a third ship that is said to belong to the so-called shadow fleet with which Venezuela wants to circumvent sanctions. US President Donald Trump recently announced that he would impose a “complete and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers on the way to and from Venezuela”. (sda/dpa)