reminder: US sanctions have devastated venezuela, including specifically their oil industry, to the point where they are incapable of receiving any external help necessary for helping this scenario.

https://www.dw.com/en/the-human-cost-of-the-us-sanctions-on-venezuela/a-50647399

https://www.gibsondunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Lee-Timura-Toussaint-Understanding-US-Sanctions-on-Venezuela-Financier-Worldwide-04-2019.pdf

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-03/venezuela-sanctions-hinder-plans-to-take-oil-from-listing-tanker https://twitter.com/westindimade/status/1318398819143397376

for venezuela to resolve this, they need oil tankers (which they don’t have) to unload the ship. bc of US sanctions, other countries were prohibited from supplying ships to unload the oil until recently.

https://www.newsweek.com/oil-tanker-nabarima-caribbean-1540082

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pdvsa-eni-vessel/venezuelas-pdvsa-to-offload-crude-from-idled-floating-facility-sources-idUSKBN2742PT

in fact the ship was forced to be abandoned in the first place because of us sanctions against venezuelan oil, meaning the joint venezuelan-italian company who owned the ship couldn’t operate w/o themselves being punished for violating sanctions

in short it’s extremely frustrating to see countries like venezuela being solely blamed for this when it’s far more accurate to blame the surrounding causal factors for such a scenario, which is the US’s continued maltreatment & involvement with any leftist latin american regime.

clarification: ive been talking a lot w/ native venezuelans today & had a lot of great convos abt this (one’s linked below). i want to make it abundantly clear-venezuela is at fault here as well & i don’t absolve them of their part in this or other human rights abuses https://twitter.com/mxrceia/status/1318966840757026816

i was speaking mainly to a US audience abt this specific situation which is exacerbated by US sanctions but venezula’s mismanagement & corruption plays a major part. i sincerely apologize that i made it seem like i only blamed the US. for more info pls listen to ppl in my replies

Venezuelan govt’s absolutely responsible for this disaster & wrecked their entire oil industry since 2003. when i condemned US sanctions i was speaking abt this specific ship but Venezula is responsible for long history beforehand

https://www.dw.com/es/la-onu-denuncia-explotaci%C3%B3n-y-abusos-en-el-arco-minero-de-venezuela/a-54185782

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2020/10/20/venezuela-is-on-the-brink-of-its-worst-oil-spill/

i realize now that my original thread was worded poorly & inaccurately directed at an american audience instead of considering the possible global impact of my words. please look through my many replies to get a better understanding of this scenario than i had

to ppl asking me to delete the tweet: if it hadn’t gotten so much traction, i wouldve but im hoping people click on the thread to read everything & read thru the replies to get information from Venezuelans who know their situation better than i ever could.