What happens when Russia oil tankers, it’s “shadow fleet,” arrive in Venezuela? From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
It appears the Trump administration is finally preparing to escalate the Venezuelan conflict once and for all, after Trump himself had told reporters that ‘ground strikes’ would begin ‘soon’ on Venezuelan soil. Trump then jumped the shark with his announcement of a full-scale naval blockade of Venezuela’s oil tankers in the most pompous way befitting his usual deportment:
This was after US Special Forces had already seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela just last week, allegedly for carrying “sanctioned” Venezuelan oil for export. A convoluted backstory was concocted about how the tanker was tied to Venezuela’s “shadow fleet” with links to Hezbollah and Iran—if you can believe the absurdity:
[see article for link]
On 10 December 2025, the United States seized the oil tanker Skipper in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela. Skipper had been sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury in 2022 for alleged involvement in an oil trafficking shadow fleet of vessels involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
Recently, reporters even asked Trump whether the blockade was more about “drug trafficking” or actually “oil”, with Trump implying that it’s about all of those things combined and more, essentially giving up the imperialist plot in one fell swoop.
