Source: Common Dreams
by Angel Gomez
“On 16 December, 2025, President Donald Trump announced what he called ‘a total and complete blockade’ of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. Delivered via his personal media platform, the statement was sweeping in its implications. Trump declared that Venezuela was ‘completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America’, and he made clear this would not end until all Venezuelan ‘oil, land, and other assets’ were returned to the United States. But beneath the dramatic language lies a far more dangerous truth: this action marks a breach of US constitutional limits, a perilous expansion of executive authority, and a break with both legal precedent and historical norms of dispute resolution. At its core, this naval blockade (undeclared, unauthorized, and now operational) poses a direct challenge to the War Powers Resolution, a congressional statute designed specifically to prevent precisely this kind of unilateral military escalation.” (12/20/25)