For every seized tanker with Venezuelan oil going to China there is a dozen that goes unbothered through US-controlled Panama Canal. Circus for the masses.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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What is the official narrative for stealing ships full of oil? It's hard to see how it is anything other than an incredibly blatant cash grab.
Doesn’t really matter. I like that about Trump, doesn’t pretend US was ever anything but a bully.
They’re sanctioned vessels, uninsured, and likely improperly registered (such as the Bella 1 which changed their flag to Russian but got seized anyways). And Panama has given permission to board (at least they did for that previous ship, but not sure about this one but I doubt they’d bother complaining).
So technically it is legal for the US to board these ships since they’re basically unflagged.
Supposedly the money collected when the oil is sold goes to one of Trump's personal accounts in a Qatar bank. No one involved in the process thinks that is a bad idea.
My neighbor country told me that the United States keeps eating his oil tankers, so I asked him how many oil tankers he has and he says that every time he just goes down to the shelter and gets a new oil tanker afterwards. So I said it sounds like he's just feeding oil tankers to the United States and then Columbia started crying.
My Venezuelan commented: “He can take all the oil, if the people are finally again.”