Venezuela denounces U.S. shipping blockade at Int'l Maritime Organization

CARACAS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan shipping vessels are harming the country's maritime transport, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounced on Thursday at the London-based United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The sanctions have led to the blockade of 39 shipping vessels operated by the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Rodriguez said during a meeting with the IMO's new secretary general, Panama-born Arsenio Dominguez Velasco.

"I expressed our concern that the entire fleet of ships and vessels that PDVSA has are being illegally sanctioned, they are blockaded," Rodriguez told Caracas-based news network Telesur.

In addition to the PDVSA fleet, "30 international trade vessels ... have been sanctioned" for doing business with Venezuela, she said.

"We are the country with the fourth-largest number of blockaded ships worldwide, truly an embarrassing situation," said the vice president.

She reiterated the call for ending the blockade against Venezuela, slamming the U.S. sanctions as an "economic genocide."

Washington's unilateral sanctions have dealt a severe blow to Venezuela's oil industry and energy trade, she said.