President Donald Trump has announced he is ordering a blockade of all « sanctioned oil tankers » into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
The move comes as Trump declared Venezuela’s regime « a designated terrorist organisation » in a bid to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.
Trump’s escalation follows U.S. forces seizing an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week, an unusual move that came after a buildup of military forces in the region.
In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes, vowing to continue the military buildup until the country gave the U.S. oil, land, and assets.
Trump claims Venezuela stole U.S. assets, cites ‘Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking’
« For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION, » Trump said in a post on his social media platform. He claimed, « Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. »
« It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. »
The buildup has been accompanied by a series of military strikes on boats in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The campaign, which has drawn bipartisan scrutiny among U.S. lawmakers, has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on vessels. The Trump administration has defended it as a success, saying it has prevented drugs from reaching American shores, pushing back on concerns that it is stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.
Trump’s chief of staff confirms campaign aimed at ousting Maduro
While the Trump administration has said the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the U.S., Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles appeared to confirm in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday that the campaign is part of a push to oust Maduro. Wiles said Trump « wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. »
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day, has long relied on oil revenue as a lifeblood of its economy.
Since the Trump administration began imposing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, Maduro’s government has relied on a shadowy fleet of unflagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.
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