The National Assembly of Venezuela, controlled by Chavismo, approved this Tuesday a law to guarantee free trade and navigation compared to what he considers as “piracy” and blockade of the United States against sanctioned oil tankers, which includes penalties of up to 20 years in prison for those who support these acts.
The law, which includes “other international crimes”comes after recent US actions against Venezuelan oil shipments.
This Monday, deputy Giuseppe Alessandrello explained that the law seeks to “protect the commercial relationship” and protect Venezuelans “from the acts of predation that the United States Government “is being carried out” at sea, regarding the military deployment of the United States in the Caribbean, where the forces of that country have already seized three oil tankers that left Venezuela.
United States Coast Guard confiscated a supertanker sanctioned vehicle carrying Venezuelan crude oil earlier this month and intercepted two others vessels linked to Venezuela over the weekend, according to US officials.
The interceptions represent the Washington’s hardest blow to the state oil company PDVSA since the Treasury Department sanctioned its former business partners, two subsidiaries of the Russian Rosneft, in 2020, forcing it to cut production and exports. PDVSA had already been sanctioned since 2019.
The draft “Law to guarantee freedom of navigation and commerce against piracy, blockades and other international illicit acts” was presented this Monday by the official deputy Giuseppe Alessandrello.
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, reported that at the end of the session the bill will be sent to the Executive for approval and will come into force once published in the Official Gazette.
The law also establishes fines in bolivars (the local currency) “equivalent to between 100,000 and 1 million times the highest exchange rate” in the country, which currently corresponds to the euro rate, published daily by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
Whoever is sanctioned could also be subject to seizure of their assets by the State, because “the Asset Forfeiture Law” will also be applicable to them.
An increase in pressure
Washington has increased pressure on the president’s government Nicolas Maduro in recent months, including the increased military presence in the Caribbean and the deaths of dozens of people in attacks on ships that it says, without providing evidence, are trafficking drugs on its coasts.
U.S. officials say the operations are part of efforts to combat sanctions evasion and drug trafficking.
Maduro says the United States is seeking undermine Venezuela’s economy and remove him from power.
Jorge Rodríguez also criticized Venezuela’s political opposition, whose leader has been in hiding for months, but traveled to Oslo in early December to collect his Nobel Peace Prize.
He accused the opposition of promoting sanctions and said that “they stole, they looted, they bowed to North American imperialism”adding that “they are happy with the aggressive actions currently occurring in the Caribbean Sea.”
Production goal
The Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, reported this Saturday that her country reached the production goal of 1,200,000 barrels of oil scheduled for this year despite the “harassment”, alluding to the growing pressures from the US, which maintains a military deployment near the South American nation.
The also Minister of Hydrocarbons He assured on his Telegram channel that the workers of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) are preparing to “achieve increased production and goals for 2026”, as part of the Productive Independence Plan.
“The best Christmas gift that our people can receive, from worthy and free men and women, is the excessive effort of our oil worker force that faces and defeats the harassment, hostilities and imperial illegality that attacks and attacks the human rights of Venezuelans“, he expressed.
Rodríguez added that “nothing and no one” will stop his country, which, “together with President Nicolás Maduro,” will continue its “victorious course of national honor and dignity.”