Iran challenges United States on Caribbean Coast
Despite the warnings that the United States has issued in recent days to Iran, the country has not reconsidered sending five ships with gasoline to Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned that he will provide an escort for the vessels once they enter his exclusive economic zone. The first of these, the Fortune, is scheduled to arrive this Friday or over the weekend off the Caribbean coast. U.S. Navy detachments are deployed in the area to curb drug trafficking to the north.
"We are ready for anything," Nicolas Maduro told his defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez. Maduro also thanked the ayatollahs for the arrival of aid from the Middle East with the chemical material needed to make gasoline in Venezuela. This exchange is a challenge to the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The White House considers the arrival of the five oil tankers in Venezuela a threat to its interests. Craig Faller, admiral at the head of the U.S. Southern Command, has assured that the regime in Tehran is providing military support to Maduro. Faller has assured that Iran, just like Russia or China, is taking advantage of the current coronavirus pandemic to gain positions in the international scenario. "Iran intends to give oxygen to Venezuela in order to gain positions in Latin America and support terrorist groups with technology and weapons," Faller said.
The Venezuelan opposition has placed under suspicion that what the ships are transporting is chemical gasoline. According to Iván Simonovis, the security commissioner appointed by the National Assembly, the boats are carrying instruments to set up an Iranian operations center at Cape San Román, in the far north of Paraguaná.
Juan Guaidó, president in charge of the country recognized by more than 50 countries, has pointed out that the Iranian shipment only covers 10 days of gasoline demand in Venezuela and has denounced that Maduro only uses the boats to make propaganda about the "supposed threat of the United States to the Iranian ships". The politician considers that, by bringing them to Venezuela, he only demonstrates the country's inability to produce, since his government has destroyed the oil industry.
The risky maneuver launched by Iran is moving the tension from the Middle East to the Caribbean coasts and means a worsening of the tense relations between Iran and the United States, which could disrupt the oil markets, which are very volatile and unstable due to the coronavirus crisis. The Iranian oil tankers had never transported gasoline to Latin America, this movement of the regime means a further step in its influence in the subcontinent and an unprecedented challenge to Donald Trump.
Venezuela is going through an economic crisis that has made it lose 50% of its GDP since the arrival of Nicolas Maduro. The arrival of the coronavirus has exacerbated the precarious situation in which the country found itself. Although the nation is very rich in oil, it has great problems refining crude oil and gasoline shortages are widespread. For weeks now, citizens have been waiting in long queues in their vehicles in front of gas stations.
"Iran and Venezuela are so isolated from the world that it is natural for them to support each other. What I find strange is that this exchange did not take place much earlier. We have already sanctioned them, they have nothing to lose," said Fernando Cutz, former White House National Security Council director for South America, in statements posted on the Univision website.
This advisor believes that the United States can do very little to prevent oil tankers from reaching Venezuela. "There is no legal basis in international law for the United States to intervene in this relationship," he explained. In fact, the Iranian authorities have asked for protection to the UN because of Washington's threats to block the route of the oil tankers and they have denounced the US warnings as "illegal". "U.S. sanctions can only prevent Iran from operating in the United States or using the U.S. dollar," Cutz said. The fleet deployed last month in the Caribbean Sea, with the aim of stopping drug trafficking in the area, has little capacity to board or intervene with Iranian vessels.
The Treasury Department, the State Department and the Coast Guard issued a warning Thursday about the illegal shipment of gasoline to Venezuela. The notice warns of U.S. sanctions against anyone who "knowingly participates in a major transaction to purchase, acquire, sell, transport or market oil". In a call with Hispanic leaders on Wednesday, Trump said Venezuela is surrounded and they are watching closely all the movements made by the authorities.
