The US military carried out a lethal strike on a vessel it said was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, as Trump further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of taking US oil.
On Wednesday Hegseth said the “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel engaged in “narco-trafficking operations” had killed four people. The latest strike in the Pacific brings the death toll to 99 since the US began its campaign of striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in September.
The announcement comes a day after Donald Trump said he had instituted a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as he accused Caracas of using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, struck a defiant note on Wednesday, insisting it was proceeding with business as usual, despite the threat of a blockade.
“Export operations for crude and byproducts continue normally. Oil tankers linked to PDVSA operations continue to sail with full security,” the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said.
Trump has overseen a major military deployment off the coast of Venezuela, and the announcement of a blockade will add to pressure on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, who claims the US seeks regime change instead of its stated goal of stopping drug trafficking.
Maduro held telephone talks with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to discuss what he called the “escalation of threats” from Washington and their “implications for regional peace”.
The foreign minister of China, the main market for Venezuelan oil, defended Caracas in a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart, Yván Gil. “China opposes all unilateral bullying and supports all countries in defending their sovereignty and national dignity,” he said.
On Wednesday, House Republicans rejected a pair of Democratic-backed resolutions which would have forced the Trump administration to seek authorisation from Congress before continuing attacks against cartels that it deems to be terrorist organisations or launching an attack on Venezuela itself.
Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, argued that Trump’s aggressions in the region were really because “the president is coveting Venezuelan oil.”
On Wednesday, Trump cited lost US investments in Venezuela when asked about the blockade, suggesting his administration’s moves were at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments.
“You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it – they illegally took it.”
US oil companies dominated Venezuela’s petroleum industry until the country’s leaders moved to nationalise the sector.
The Trump administration has said for months the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the US, but Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also appeared to confirm in a Vanity Fair interview published on Tuesday that the campaign is part of a push to oust Maduro.
The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, waded into the dispute on Wednesday, declaring that the United Nations was “nowhere to be seen” and asked that it step up to “prevent any bloodshed”.
