The oil blockade threat creates anxiety in Venezuela but people stick to their daily lives

CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to cut off Venezuelan oil sales could devastate a country already wrangling with years of spiraling crises.

The prospect added to Venezuelans' collective anxiety over their country's future on Wednesday. But after years of political, social and economic challenges, Venezuelans also treated the threat like another inconvenience — even when it could bring back the shortages of food, gasoline and other goods that defined the country over the last decade.

''Well, we've already had so many crises, shortages of so many things — food, gasoline — that one more ... well, one doesn't worry anymore,'' Milagro Viana said while waiting to catch a bus in Caracas, the country's capital.

Increasing pressure

Trump on Tuesday announced he was ordering a blockade of all ''sanctioned oil tankers'' into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States.

Trump's escalation came after U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast after a buildup of military forces in the region.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. The country's economy depends on the industry, with more than 80% of output exported.

In a post on social media announcing the blockade, Trump alleged that Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes. He vowed to continue the military buildup until Venezuela gives the U.S. oil, land and other assets.

On Wednesday, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement a day earlier of a ''blockade'' against tankers hauling crude to or from the South American country that face American sanctions.

Economic impact

David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for more than three decades, said a full implementation of Trump's threat will cause a huge economic contraction because oil represents 90% of the country's exports.

''This is a country that traditionally imports a lot, not just finished goods, but most intermediate goods — everything from toilet paper to food containers,'' Smilde said. ''If you don't have foreign currency coming up, that just brings the whole economy to a halt.''

''Things are going to get tough here,'' Pedro Arangura said while waiting for a remittance store to open. ''We have to put up with it. Nobody wants it, but it's going to happen.''

Arangura said material difficulties could lead to Maduro's ouster, echoing what Venezuela's opposition has been telling supporters in recent months.

Nearby, Ismael Chirino, like Arangura, said he believes the population will ''resist'' whatever challenges result from Trump's latest move. But, Chirino said, people will do so to maintain Maduro in office.

''We held on. We didn't have gas, we didn't have gasoline, we didn't have money, and yet, we withstood all of that,'' Chirino said, referring to the second half of the 2010s, when the country's economy came undone and shortages were widespread. ''I think they need to think very carefully if the U.S. wants to take over our wealth and all our territory."

The US military buildup

Maduro has denied the drug accusations. He and his allies have repeatedly said that the operation's true purpose is to force a government change in Venezuela. They have also claimed that the U.S. is after Venezuela's vast oil and mineral resources.

Smilde said Trump's threat was a gift to Chavismo, the political movement that Maduro inherited from the late President Hugo Chávez, his predecessor and mentor. Chávez became president in 1999 with promises to uplift the poor and used an oil bonanza in the 2000s to push a self-described socialist agenda.

''There are few actions that any U.S. president has taken in the last 25 years that have better fit Chavismo's line than Donald Trump's tweet last night,'' Smilde said. ''They have been saying this from the beginning, ‘The U.S. wants our oil.' So, finally, the discourse has the evidence.''

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