Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proposed holding protests in ports around the world against US piracy following the seizure of a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil.
“Unions must negotiate with shipowners in all ports around the world to prepare for mass protests by oil, gas and port workers against the US government's piracy“, Maduro told the inaugural congress of the Venezuelan working class, broadcast by the Venezolana de Televisión television channel.
The president stressed that oil workers “must actively organize the working class around the world to protest against the piracy of those who believe they have the right to steal the world's goods, and to say "no" to robbery and piracy.
Maduro said that "for 25 weeks now, Venezuela has been confronting and defeating a multifaceted, aggressive campaign of psychological terrorism and piracy by private individuals who have attacked oil facilities." He stressed the need to protect the republic's freedom of trade.
On December 10, the United States, using the aircraft carrier "Gerald R. Ford," seized a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean. U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States planned to seize the oil. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt later announced that the United States intended to seize the tanker seized off the coast of Venezuela and the oil it was carrying.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said it viewed the seizure of an oil tanker in the Caribbean by the United States as “a flagrant robbery and an act of international piracy“.