Venezuela Approves Harsher Sentences for People Supporting 'Piracy and Blockades'

Is U.S. action against Venezuela imperial aggression over oil, or a justified intervention against a narcoterrorist regime?
Venezuela Approves Harsher Sentences for People Supporting 'Piracy and Blockades'
Above: Venezuela's National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Dec. 17, 2025. Image credit: Pedro Mattey/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Seizing sanctioned oil tankers and tankers carrying sanctioned oil off Venezuela makes complete sense because that illicit oil funds narcoterrorism and enriches hostile regimes like China, Iran and Russia. Maduro's narco-regime has stolen U.S. assets to maintain its brutal dictatorship while flooding America with deadly drugs. Forceful action against criminal cartels isn't optional — it's overdue justice that will cut off drug trafficking, end mass migration and remove hostile foreign powers from the Western Hemisphere.

Establishment-critical narrative

The U.S. blockade of oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela is naked imperial aggression based on the absurd claim that Venezuela stole U.S. oil and assets when the country nationalized its own resources half a century ago. This is pure economic warfare, revealing a worldview where U.S. power defines legitimacy and other countries' resources are treated as American property by default. With this new law, Venezuela will punish those supporting U.S. piracy properly and safeguard the operations of vessels transporting Venezuelan crude oil.

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© 2025 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.20.0

© 2025 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 6.20.0