So the 2 Oil tankers that usa seized were Panamanian flagged and Panama has a treaty that says usa can board their ships with little notice in order to search for WMDs. So the ships had to stop because trump says fentanyl is a wmd and that Venezuela is a fentanyl exporter.

So the blockade was a bluff and he is using back channel legality to cover his ass. Its a flimflam.