President Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers from Venezuela in an escalation of tensions with the South American country.
The president’s latest announcement comes as part of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has placed hundreds of American troops and ships near Venezuela’s coastline and U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off the country’s coast, an unusual move that followed a buildup of military forces in the region.
“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,” Trump said on Truth Social Tuesday evening.
It is unclear what oil, land and assets the White House believes Venezuela has stolen from the US.
Trump also accused Maduro of using oil to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.”
“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” the president continued. “The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace.”
The buildup in tension 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, and they pushed back on concerns that it is stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.
The administration has said the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the U.S., but 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.”
Last week, the Treasury department announced sanctions against three of Maduro’s wife’s nephews, Cilia Flores and a business executive close to Maduro. The department also added six oil tankers to its list of sanctioned vessels, alleging that the vessels “have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.”
The South American country largely relies on oil exports to fuel its economy, so seizing oil tankers could devastate Venezuela’s already fragile economy, according to experts. Oil makes up about 88 percent of Venezuela’s $24bn in export revenues, according to The New York Times.
Elsewhere, the administration has been scrutinized for the U.S. military’s strikes on an alleged drug-carrying boat that killed two survivors.
When two survivors emerged from the wreckage of the first strike on September 2, the commander overseeing the operation ordered officials to fire again. That order was reportedly in response to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s alleged instructions to “kill everybody” on the vessels, according to The Washington Post, citing officials with direct knowledge of the operation.
News of Hegseth’s alleged command has heightened intense legal and political scrutiny into the Trump administration’s deadly campaign and allegations that the attacks amount to illegal extrajudicial killings, which law-of-war experts speaking to The Independent in recent months have labeled outright murders and war crimes.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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