Link to the article:https://latinamericanpost.com/americas/venezuela-ghost-tankers-outrun-trumps-sanctions-and-caracas-learns-again/
In 2019 President Trump put sanctions on Venezuela’s oil. In the past 6 years the Bpd has doubled to about a million a day. The work around for this is where the Ghost Tankers come in, they needed way to find a work around the blockade. S&P Global has estimated that one in five oil tankers are moving sanctioned crude oil, 10% of which is from Venezuela. These ship use different names and flags in order to avoid capture. The ship that was recently taken over by the US named to Skipper was previously know to have work with Iranian backed Hezbollah, during its work with them it was known as the Adisa and The Tokoya. In April there was a tanker called the Varada that departed from Venezuela, however the real Varada was scraped in 2017 in Bangladesh. As time goes on Ghost Ships near Venezuela have been seen to just linger around and 9 of the tankers near Venezuelan ports have been linked to Ghost Tanker patterns.
I think that when push comes to shove states will do what they need to do to survive. With discounted prices due to the embargo Venezuela needed to find ways to operate their raw material exports that make up a large portion of the economy. So just like Russia and Iran they are going to conduct back door deals to secure their national interest. The US on the other hand has to know about these Ghost Tankers en masse. I do find it confusing why the US wouldn’t just label the supposed Ghost Ships as criminal and confiscate them. The US has shown what they are willing to do for national security as seen by the strikes on suspected drug running ships.
The Venezuelans will most likely continue to try and rally international support for the seizure of the skipper however anyone coming to their aid seems unlikely. Also, they will most likely look to employ more ghost ships in order to bolster their income as US strikes on the mainland are imminent. The US will most likely take action in whatever way they can legally and militarily. I suspect something along the lines of the FTO label that was put on the Gulf Clan will happen to the ships that are known to be Ghost Ships.
In connection to the class I can see the concepts of hard power and of sovereignty. The US has used hard power by seizing a ship physically and by launching strikes on suspected drug running boats. They have also infringed on the sovereignty of Venezuela by interdicting their ability to conduct foreign trade and policy at that.