Trump Oil Blockade Raises Legal Issues 12/19 06:19

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's "blockade" of sanctioned oil 
tankers off Venezuela's coast is raising new questions about the legality of 
his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. 
could be edging closer to war.

   The Trump administration says its blockade is narrowly tailored and not 
targeting civilians, which would be an illegal act of war. But some experts say 
seizing sanctioned oil tied to leader Nicols Maduro could provoke a military 
response from Venezuela, engaging American forces in a new level of conflict 
that goes beyond their attacks on alleged drug boats.

   "My biggest fear is this is exactly how wars start and how conflicts 
escalate out of control," said Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who fought 
in Iraq and Afghanistan. "And there are no adults in the room with this 
administration, nor is there consultation with Congress. So I'm very worried."

   Claire Finkelstein, a professor of national security law at the University 
of Pennsylvania, said the use of such an aggressive tactic without 
congressional authority stretches the bounds of international law and 
increasingly looks like a veiled attempt to trigger a Venezuelan response.

   "The concern is that we are bootstrapping our way into armed conflict," 
Finkelstein said. "We're upping the ante in order to try to get them to engage 
in an act of aggression that would then justify an act of self-defense on our 
part."

   Republicans largely are OK with the campaign

   Trump has used the word "blockade" to describe his latest tactic in an 
escalating pressure campaign against Maduro, who has been charged with 
narcoterrorism in the U.S. and now has been accused of using oil profits to 
fund drug trafficking. While Trump said it only applies to vessels facing U.S. 
economic penalties, the move has sparked outrage among Democrats and mostly 
shrugs, if not cheers, from Republicans.

   Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Trump going after sanctioned oil tankers 
linked to Venezuela is no different from targeting Iranian oil.

   "Just like with the Iranian shadow tankers, I have no problem with that," 
McCaul said. "They're circumventing sanctions."

   The president has declared the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with drug cartels 
in an effort to reduce the flow of drugs to American communities. U.S. forces 
have attacked 28 alleged drug-smuggling boats and killed at least 104 people 
since early September. Trump has repeatedly promised that land strikes are 
next, while linking Maduro to the cartels.

   The campaign has drawn scrutiny in Congress, particularly after it was 
revealed that U.S. forces killed two survivors of a boat attack with a 
follow-up strike. But Republicans so far have repeatedly declined to require 
congressional authorization for further military action in the region, blocking 
Democrats' war powers resolutions.

   Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Service 
Committee, has essentially ended his panel's investigation into the Sept. 2 
strike, saying Thursday that the entire campaign is being conducted "on sound 
legal advice."

   Venezuela pushes back

   Trump announced the blockade Tuesday, about a week after U.S. forces seized 
a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela's coast. The South American country has 
the world's largest proven oil reserves and relies heavily on the revenue to 
support its economy.

   The U.S. has been imposing sanctions on Venezuela since 2005 over concerns 
about corruption as well as criminal and anti-democratic activities. The first 
Trump administration expanded the penalties to oil, prompting Maduro's 
government to rely on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle 
crude into global supply chains.

   The state-owned oil company Petrleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, has been 
largely locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions. It sells most of 
its exports at a steep discount on the black market in China.

   Nicols Maduro Guerra, Maduro's son and a lawmaker, on Thursday decried 
Trump's latest tactic and vowed to work with the private sector to limit any 
impact on the country's oil-dependent economy. He acknowledged that it won't be 
an easy task.

   "We value peace and dialogue, but the reality right now is that we are being 
threatened by the most powerful army in the world, and that's not something to 
be taken lightly," Maduro Guerra said.

   Pentagon prefers the term 'quarantine'

   It wasn't immediately clear how the U.S. planned to enact Trump's order. But 
the Navy has 11 ships in the region and a wide complement of aircraft that can 
monitor marine traffic coming in and out of Venezuela.

   Trump may be using the term "blockade," but the Pentagon says officials 
prefer "quarantine."

   A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to outline internal 
reasoning about the policy, said a blockade, under international law, 
constitutes an act of war requiring formal declaration and enforcement against 
all incoming and outgoing traffic. A quarantine, however, is a selective, 
preventive security measure that targets specific, illegal activity.

   Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, 
said he was unsure of the legality of Trump's blockade.

   "They're blockading apparently the oil industry, not the entire country," 
said Smith, who represents parts of western Washington state. "How does that 
change things? I got to talk to some lawyers, but in general, a blockade is an 
act of war."

   The U.S. has a long history of leveraging naval sieges to pressure lesser 
powers, especially in the 19th century era of "gunboat diplomacy," sometimes 
provoking them into taking action that triggers an even greater American 
response.

   But in recent decades, as the architecture of international law has 
developed, successive U.S. administrations have been careful not to use such 
maritime shows of force because they are seen as punishing civilians -- an 
illegal act of aggression outside of wartime.

   During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy famously 
called his naval cordon to counter a real threat -- weapons shipments from the 
Soviet Union -- a "quarantine" not a blockade.

   Mark Nevitt, an Emory University law professor and former Navy judge 
advocate general, said there is a legal basis for the U.S. to board and seize 
an already-sanctioned ship that is deemed to be stateless or is claiming two 
states.

   But a blockade, he said, is a "wartime naval operation and maneuver" 
designed to block the access of vessels and aircraft of an enemy state.

   "I think the blockade is predicated on a false legal pretense that we are at 
war with narcoterrorists," he said.

   Nevitt added: "This seems to be almost like a junior varsity blockade, where 
they're trying to assert a wartime legal tool, a blockade, but only doing it 
selectively."

   Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor who previously served as the 
Army's senior adviser for law-of-war issues and has been critical of the Trump 
administration's boat strikes, said he was not convinced the blockade was 
intended to ratchet up the conflict with Venezuela.

   Instead, he suggested it could be aimed at escalating the pressure on Maduro 
to give up power or encouraging his supporters to back away from him.

   "You can look at it through the lens of, is this an administration trying to 
create a pretext for a broader conflict?" Corn said. "Or you can look at it as 
part of an overall campaign of pressuring the Maduro regime to step aside."