President Trump has ordered what he called a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as the United States escalates pressure on the government of President Nicolás Maduro. The move comes amid a major U.S. military buildup in the region and days after U.S. forces seized an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil. Since September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 25 airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific near Venezuela, killing at least 95 people.
The administration's actions against Venezuela signal "the total renunciation of liberal internationalism" and further abandonment of "a world governed by common laws," says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Yale University professor Greg Grandin. This comes as Latin America is on a "knife's edge between the left and the right," with the Trump administration eager to boost its authoritarian allies across the region, says Grandin.
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