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US senator Ron Wyden is goading major tanker companies because of possible links to being in cahoots with the Mexican cartel. Wyden has sent messages to 7 maritime shipping companies to issue statements and give records confirming that they are not being used to distribute illegal hydrocarbons issued by the Mexican Cartel as they have recently been embedding themselves in the energy supply chain. Illegal fuel and crude oil has recently become the Mexican Cartels second highest income item after of course drugs which you can see could lead them to try and manipulate American companies.
I think this is a very good issue by senator Wyden because from the whole Venezuela situation, we’ve learned that the Caribbean and Atlantic waters have been very infested with illegal activity and because we know the Cartel likes to play dirty why wouldn’t they manipulate American shipping firms to do the dirty work of transporting the illegal fuels and oil to their desired locations for them so there’s less risk of getting caught.
I think the companies should have no fear of this statement, so unless they are actually hiding something they should probably do more then the senator is asking to ensure the senator that they aren’t hiding any Cartel schemes. If I am senator Wyden I’m making sure myself that there is no facade happening as America is currently trying to suffocate the Mexican Cartel so allowing them access to their number two highest profit item in our own companies is not going to go over well.
This article relates to the idea of power because senator Wyden is making use of his hard power to use his state authority to apply real pressure to the companies. It counts as hard power because Wyden can threaten real legal consequences to these companies if they don’t comply. Interdependence Is also shown as the energy smuggling scheme shows how interdependence in maritime markets can be exploited by any other relating actor.