Trump: Who Will Put the Bell on the Cat?

By Maria Páez Victor  –  Dec 16, 2025

“Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro described the detention of an oil tanker seized by US military personnel in the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday as an act of piracy” (Orinoco Tribune, 12 Dec. 2025)

Trump, the president of the most capitalist nation on Earth, has dealt a blow to the very system upon which his country—and indeed, most of the West—considers the bedrock of the economy, a blow that not even the most revolutionary person today would have foretold or thought to achieve. He has trashed the notion of private property and outright stolen a full oil tanker in international waters, like a modern pirate, and kidnapped its crew. 

Since September, mighty US navy warships obliterated, with military missiles, 22 small outboard motorboats (mostly in the Caribbean but some in the Pacific), killing at least 87 people. The victims were unidentified and unarmed, and there was no evidence of drugs. One boat’s two survivors, clinging to the wreckage for an hour, were not picked up but obliterated later by a second missile. These killings were all extra-judicial, therefore illegal, as there was no due process, no chance of defence, no courts, no judges, no adherence to US laws or international laws, no respect of human rights or for age-old norms of seafaring rescue. Trump and his buffoonish “secretary of war” were judge and executioner. In other words, it was a premeditated murder. By the precedent set at the Nuremberg trials, all who follow illegal orders to murder are also guilty of murder: an individual carrying out illegal instructions on behalf of a superior is not absolved of responsibility under international law.

The killings have been denounced by most Caribbean and Latin American countries, progressive NGOs worldwide, solidarity movements and most non-aligned countries including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the BRICS, China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the United Nations. France and the UK have spoken out, but only lukewarm nods have come from Canada and the EU. However, human rights experts and international law experts invariably have pronounced that these were extrajudicial, unlawful killings. 

But Wall Street remained unperturbed by the murder of seamen and fishermen.  The markets were not affected in any real way: murder in the high seas is “not their department”. 

Nor have the markets been affected in any significant way by the hybrid war against Venezuela these past years: the sabotages, the mercenary invasions, the cyberattacks, the exclusion from the international financial system, the UK theft of Venezuelan gold,  the theft of all Venezuelan foreign assets including its oil company CITGO, and the sanctions impeding the production and sale of oil by Venezuela restricting its ability to import food and medicines. Venezuela was not even allowed to acquire Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic. The list of actions designed to impoverish and destabilize Venezuela goes on. It includes assassination attempts on Venezuelan leaders, the promotion and recognition of a false president, and the death of more than 100,000 Venezuelans due to the 1,000+ illegal, unilateral, brutal economic sanctions. The economic cost to the country is staggering: US $232 billion to the petroleum sector and US $642 billion to the non-petroleum sector. 

None of these appalling imposed sufferings of Venezuelans seemed to impress in any meaningful way geopolitics or world markets. After all, what importance did a Latin American country like Venezuela have in the broad scheme of international geopolitics and economy? It all seemed to be confined in a sort-of private “quarrel” between the US and Venezuela.

Not so the robbery of a full oil tanker in international waters on December 10, 2025. 

After the news got out—with a handy PR video of the assault to demonstrate just how “tough” the US is —oil prices climbed immediately. Brent crude futures rose 0.4% to $62.21 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also gained 0.4% to close at $58.46 per barrel on the same day. Oil is very affected by supply issues and by restricting the supply of oil from Venezuela, the price of oil and price of gasoline can rise. 

But that price fluctuation is minor compared with the long-term risks which Washington has visited upon international shipping, especially its safety and security and that of its cargo.  Trump has said that he will seize even more tankers, increasing the already heightened insecurity and uncertainty. Will oil tankers now-on have to be heavily armed to deliver their cargo and protect their crew? The oil in that seized tanker was prepaid, so Venezuela has not lost the income from it, but since, in all likelihood, the oil’s final destination was China, Trump has stolen from China. This puts the seizure of the tanker and its cargo on a totally different scale of importance geopolitically with China as the victim. 

There is more. The enormity of the US assault on a commercial, civilian oil tanker that was carrying out non-military private business in international waters, is an uncommon blow to the cornerstone of the capitalist system on which the entire economy of the West relies: that is: private property. By committing such an impudent and openly publicized assault on a private, unarmed, oil tanker, the US Navy has committed—without a doubt—an act of piracy. The Venezuelan minister of defense has said, “It is a crude, rude act of cowardly thievery to appropriate resources that do not belong to you.” And cowardly it was, as we all saw the video in which marines armed to the teeth quickly grabbed unarmed seamen. 

It is worse than the piracy of old because in this case it is state-sponsored piracy. It is a grab at another country’s natural resources, as the US is obsessed with Venezuela because it has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, and to do so it endeavours to turn its government into a lackey puppet that will do the bidding of the US and its oil corporations. The US does not want to buy Venezuelan oil, it wants to own it, as Trump openly declared in 2023. Therefore, it wants to bring down its present government and install a vassal state. No other nation save Russia, has received so many sanctions as Venezuela, and for twenty years the CIA attacks to undermine the government have not ceased. The sanctions have, however, failed, so now Washington has turned to the military “option”: to take Venezuela by force.

The United States of America is now a piratical country: an abuser of its own domestic laws and international laws. It is a lie that they took possession of the oil tanker because it was “violating sanctions”, when said sanctions are in themselves illegal and invalid. They are unilateral US instruments of harassment and interference in the sovereign affairs of other nations, not backed by the United Nations Charter, and the UN is the only mechanism to impose legal sanctions on a nation. The tanker assault also violates the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and is demonstrably contrary to the Geneva Convention. 

This armed robbery at sea was also condemned by the Non-Aligned Movement that comprises 121 countries, and which also condemned the US’s attempt to completely close Venezuela’s sovereign airspace which the US has no right to do. The US is undermining the Proclamation of Latin America the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace. 

A main concern, however, is the geopolitical risk of stealing the tanker. The US has trashed the one undisputed principle of capitalism: that private property is sacrosanct. This theft, unlike murder, instantly affected markets as the assault put in peril international shipping, the international laws and protocols surrounding it, and the protection of private property. If the US can do this, so can any other nation with the military force to carry it out. Might is right in this new order that the cruelty of the Trump administration is trying to enforce upon our civilization. 

Of course, Venezuelans have reacted in disgust, as recent polls show 96% of the population condemn the attack. But as well, there has been international condemnation from the Caribbean nations, China, Iran, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Cuba. China has pointed out how this assault created “instability in global energy markets and undermined international economic security.” China and Russia have been solid defenders of Venezuela’s right to self-determination and have shown their solidarity by helping with Venezuela’s defence. This is no small thing, putting Venezuela’s sovereignty in the middle of geopolitical concerns. because the US clearly and outspokenly, seeks to curtail any involvement of China or Russia in Latin America. 

A Unified Venezuela Strongly Condemns US Threat of Blockade, Gains International Backing

We must put all this in context. The war of Washington against Venezuela is not just about that country, but against all of Latin America and the Caribbean which the US insists is their “back yard”—with Canada thrown into the bargain. 

The new US National Security Strategy has been described as “the Monroe Doctrine on steroids” (The Hill, 15 Dec. 2025) The new Strategy is a brazen, shameful bravado of a bully that attempts to exert its will by force upon sovereign nations. It states: “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.” 

Trump has openly said: “You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.” Trump is ready to revive the belief that any problem can be solved by military force, even when other tools exist. He promises to use its “military system superior to any country in the world” to steal the hemisphere’s resources.” (V. Prashad, Counterpunch, 15 Dec. 2025)

The question of private property has long been debated in political science and philosophic discourse particularly, by men such as Proudhon, Fourier, Saint Simon, and Marx. Proudhon famously said: “Property is theft.” Karl Marx refined the concept by pointing out that it is the private property of the means of production that is a sort of theft, one that basically acts to estrange people from people, and indeed from nature itself. In other words, capitalism alienates people from one another and revolutionary movements throughout the world are concerned with the issue of private property and ownership of the means of production. The forceful theft of a commercial oil tanker in the high seas is indeed, by capitalist standards, a violation of private property and it is the seizure of a particular substance that is crucial to the means of production that are key to industrial activity. It has already increased the volatility of oil markets and oil transportation by this blow on navigational security. So private property is now a relative notion according to Trump, subject to the whims of the most powerful.

Trump has a new take on private property (or perhaps it is as old as the caveman with a club in his hand?): if we need it or want it and you have it, we will use our military strength to take it from you but you cannot take anything from us. And to gild the lily, the new, “improved” Monroe Doctrine proclaims to the world that Washington now says it owns the Hemisphere.

So, who will put the bell on the cat? How can Trump and his entourage be stopped?  He must be stopped by the combined effect of good people, inside and outside the US,  and courageous nations that are willing to stand up to a mendacious, murderous, thieving government, no matter how powerful. One must not cower before military technology but cast awareness to those who misuse it.

• First, it is necessary that their legitimacy be widely questioned and unrecognized at every instance. The US has no right outside its own frontiers to interfere, harass and in any way influence the sovereignty of other nations. Other nations should not follow US illegal sanctions. It has no jurisdiction outside its own frontiers. As Human Rights Watch advocates, other countries should push back on lawless executions at sea as world order and peace depends on countries speaking out against violations, even when they’re committed by powerful friends. 
• Secondly, the prevailing international laws must be strengthened especially in terms of penalties to be applied if violated. Laws are useless unless they are enforced. The US must be sanctioned legitimately, multilaterally, by the United Nations.   Washington should be fined, sanctions, or at least all nations should refuse to buy military equipment from it. Its outrageous murderous acts and larceny should be enough to ban it from international organizations upholding international laws. The US should be shunned at every venue for its state-run piracy that includes murders.
• Thirdly, in view of its unparallelled military resources, the US has become, more than any other nation, a threat to world peace and security. Accordingly, it should be required to forfeit its place in the UN Security Council. 
• Fourth, the countries of the world should increase their trading in other currencies rather than the dollar and ignore any illegal, unilateral sanctions the US tries to impose on commerce. Freedom of navigation and freedom to trade with whomever a nation wishes should prevail.

The Trump regime is fueled by narcissistic pride: hubris.  

And the ancient Greeks told us clearly that hubris ends badly.

In the 19th Century Venezuela led the way to freedom from an unjust empire. Today, in the 21st century again it is showing the way to defeat imperialism with its serene determination, its military/civil union, its communal councils, its strong network of allies in solidarity, and its fierce defence of its own sovereignty. It will prevail again. Bolívar was a greater mind and man than Monroe ever was. 

 

MPV/OT