TEHRAN – The confrontation between the United States and Venezuela in late 2025 is not a sudden flare-up but the continuation of Washington’s long-standing pressure campaign. 

The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), released just a week ago, frames narcotics interdiction and hemispheric dominance as national imperatives. Yet even before its publication, U.S. forces had already launched deadly attacks on vessels in the Caribbean, leaving nearly 90 people dead since early September. 

The recent seizure of the Guyana flagged tanker Skipper and the confiscation of its oil underscores the reality: what Washington labels “enforcement” increasingly resembles militarization and piracy, undermining international law and destabilizing the wider region.

Sanctions have now moved beyond financial restrictions into direct maritime enforcement. The U.S. Treasury Department has targeted relatives of President Nicolás Maduro and Washington has threatened to seize more supertankers flagged abroad, but the capture of the Skipper marked a decisive shift. 

Maduro denounced the act as “criminal naval piracy,” pointing to the kidnapping of crews and the confiscation of sovereign resources. His words highlight the broader concern that sanctions have been weaponized into open confrontation, transforming economic pressure into military escalation. Trump has made clear that his ultimate goal is to oust Maduro, framing regime change as inseparable from Washington’s security doctrine.

This escalation is further reinforced by Trump’s threats of strikes on land targets allegedly linked to narcotics shipments. This move aligns with the NSS’s framing of drugs as a national security issue. For Venezuela, these actions are not law enforcement but acts of war. Lives have already been lost, and the risk of turning the Caribbean into a battlefield grows with each new operation. Caracas insists that sovereignty must be respected, warning that U.S. aggression erodes the foundations of international order and sets a precedent for unilateral intervention.

Regional responses reveal a clear rejection of foreign military involvement. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has, meanwhile, reaffirmed support for Maduro, promising expanded cooperation, while Colombia’s leadership suggested asylum as a peaceful option. 

In this context, Venezuela’s opposition faces its own credibility crisis. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, speaking after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, declared that Maduro will soon have no choice but to leave. Some analyses claim that he lost the 2024 election to Edmundo González; however, the opposition’s reliance on foreign threats undermines its legitimacy. By invoking U.S. missiles and external intervention, opposition figures risk turning Venezuela into a proxy battlefield rather than building democratic strength at home.

The seizure of the Skipper also fits into Washington’s broader campaign against “dark fleet” tankers that move oil between sanctioned states. While the NSS frames this as disrupting illicit trade, the decision to treat these ships as “legitimate military targets” raises serious questions about escalation and legality. 

With hundreds of such vessels operating worldwide, militarizing their interdiction sets a dangerous precedent for global commerce and threatens to destabilize maritime norms far beyond the Caribbean.

Besides, the opposition’s embrace of foreign intervention only deepens the crisis, leaving Venezuelans caught between external aggression and internal division.