The Venezuela Thread

[TruckDriver9]

US forces boarded (unclear if seized) one of the tankers that run away from Venezuela in the Indian Ocean.

When the @DeptofWar says quarantine, we mean it. Nothing will stop DoW from defending our Homeland - even in oceans halfway around the world.
Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.
The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed. The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice. You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us.
The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain.

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Edit/update
She was seized and is currently en route to Singapore

 

[It_Is_My_Time]

 

[TruckDriver9]

 

[LaAguilaNegra]

Very weird piece considering Russia's blossoming hydrocarbon trade with Israel. It's almost as if the Kremlin mouthpieces over at RussiaToday are running scared that renewed Venezuelan oil shipments will undercut the Russian market share in yet another state. Ergo the chuddy ALL CAPS e-chimpout clearly aimed at riling up their by now functionally lobotomized Western slop-consumers.

A US move to elbow Russia out of Israel's import top 3 chart is unlikely, although it would theoretically mean yet another dent in Russia's struggling hydrocarbon empire. Gazprom, the former pearl of Russia's floroushing fossil fuel trade, is ailing. In 2023 it made a 7 billion USD loss, in 2024 a 13 billion USD loss was noted. 2026 didn't exactly start off well either. China's renewed its emphasis on geostrategic risk spreading through hydrocarbon diversification, which followed the electricity price dispute and January 2026 halt on ROA. The US-India tariff deal has open clauses on India's need to first limit and then stop entertaining the Russian black market oil trade, the Russian shadow fleet and refineries are systematically targeted and of course the Europeans are by now importing a 10-15 percent share of its pre 2022 Russian gas import numbers.

Now it's apparantly Israel's turn - even though it really isn't, RT's article is pure ragebait for the intended chud target audience. They'll eat it up without a critical thought anyway, a propagandist's wet dream. IIMT was no doubt banging his desk reading the rageporn, Venezuela was for Israel errone we've cracked the enigma!!1! High fives over at the RT offices in Moscow, job well done yet again.

All of that is low brow nonsense of course and the fact that the Russia-Israel trade has grown with nearly 80 percent (2.16 billion USD to 3.86 billion USD) in the 2020-2024 time frame proves RT's hypocrisy. Russia is Israel's main refined fuel supplier (45 percent market share) and ranks top 5 as a crude oil supplier. That ranking is actually not doing justice. The top two Israeli crude oil exporters (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) both use Russia's oil infrastructure (Turkstream/ Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC)), and it's an open secret that the Russians are mixing in Ural crude on especially the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) to ditch sanctions. This happens at Novorossysk Port from where Russian tankers transport the oil to Israel. Surprisingly no RT articles on this issue so far, very weird I just checked.

https://oilchange.org/publications/an-update-on-the-origins-of-israels-fuel-supply/

Gazprom records the worst results in the company’s history | European Gas Hub

europeangashub.com

 

[TruckDriver9]

A second Venezuela-affiliated tanker was seized by US forces in the Indian Ocean.

We defend the Homeland forward. Distance does not protect you.
Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Veronica III without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine - hoping to slip away. We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down. No other nation has the reach, endurance, or will to do this.International waters are not sanctuary. By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice. The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies freedom of movement in the maritime domain.

Out of the group of 16 tankers that run away from Venezuela in early January, only one's left at large. The rest was either seized or complied and returned on their own.

Following today's interdiction in the South Indian Ocean by the US Coast Guard of the VLCC supertanker VERONICA III (9326055), laden with Venezuelan fuel oil and crude oil, there is now only one oil‑laden tanker left to pursue from the original sixteen that broke through the US Navy blockade on 2026‑01‑03. Her name is BERTHA (9292163) and goes by the zombie alias "EKTA".
Only a matter of time now.

 

[LaAguilaNegra]

^The idea of regime change in Venezuela through US military intervention is even more of a reach than the regime change project in Russia through the Ukraine war.

Back to the main subject, this whole campaign is more forever wars and doomed to failure. There is not going to be regime change, Maduro is popular enough, especially now that he is taking on the nationalist mantle against Gringo invaders, this is going to play well for him in LatAm. He might also have some Russian surprises up his sleeves in the form of stand-off weapons that can do some damage to the USN.

Excellent summary of the Venezuela situation by Mearsheimer:

New song just dropped, beat hits hard. Artist is asking his audience 'where the communists are', and I'd like to extend that million dollar question to our own commie Lil Coop. Where dem commies at gramps?!

It's yet another unfortunate affair for the thirdies. Lil Coop, who is more often wrong than a broken clock, previously boasted that 'a US regime change op in Venezuela would never work'. He also claimed that 'Maduro has popular support and that a US move would play out well for him in LatAm'. Venezuela was then talked up as 'having Russian surprises up their sleeve which could do damage to the US Navy'. Reality: a thirty minute show put on by the Trillion Dollar Beast is literally all it took.

The way this man can't get a thing right yet keeps on interjecting himself into discussions boasting this faux sense of intellectualism and expertise is nothing short of hilarious, cloaking himself in expensive terminology and totally irrelevant factoids to hide the total lack of understanding of basically any topic at hand. Shameless to the core too, the man always returns as if nothing happened with yet more hopium and copium laced takes to keep the chud following intoxicated. For now we enjoy the beats and salty tears.

Those communists, where are they?!

 

[Cooper]

New song just dropped, beat hits hard. Artist is asking his audience 'where the communists are', and I'd like to extend that million dollar question to our own commie Lil Coop. Where dem commies at gramps?!

It's yet another unfortunate affair for the thirdies. Lil Coop, who is more often wrong than a broken clock, previously boasted that 'a US regime change op in Venezuela would never work'. He also claimed that 'Maduro has popular support and that a US move would play out well for him in LatAm'. Venezuela was then talked up as 'having Russian surprises up their sleeve which could do damage to the US Navy'. Reality: a thirty minute show put on by the Trillion Dollar Beast is literally all it took.

The way this man can't get a thing right yet keeps on interjecting himself into discussions boasting this faux sense of intellectualism and expertise is nothing short of hilarious, cloaking himself in expensive terminology and totally irrelevant factoids to hide the total lack of understanding of basically any topic at hand. Shameless to the core too, the man always returns as if nothing happened with yet more hopium and copium laced takes to keep the chud following intoxicated. For now we enjoy the beats and salty tears.

Those communists, where are they?!

I am very glad there was no war, no mass casualties and no mass migration from that confrontation in Venezuela. This was an unexpected outcome, and to the extent that it was bloodless, a good one.

It wasn't a regime change, but a change in leadership brought by behind the scenes negotiations, that seems to be holding, for now.

You're posting from a dark place, consider changing your style and disposition, and if you really are a Christian, pray for continued peace in Venezuela, as I did.