Trump Orders Blockade of Venezuela

Donald Trump has ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, ramping up pressure on Nicolas Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader.

The US president claimed that Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes as he announced the “total and complete” crackdown on Tuesday evening.

“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,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”

The president claimed that Venezuela had stolen US land for oil fields, without specifying where, and demanded it be returned.

“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” he said.

He added that the US “will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY.”

His comments come a week after the United States seized a large, sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela that was destined for Cuba.

Dramatic footage of the moment US troops took control of the vessel shows helicopters hovering above the vast ship as armed troops rappelled onto the deck.

At the time, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said the operation was carried out to break up an “illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”, transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran.

The US has allegedly assembled a target list of several more sanctioned tankers for possible seizure, according to Reuters.

The Treasury said last Thursday it imposed sanctions on six supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela.

The seizures would hamstring Venezuelan oil exports, cutting one of the country’s key generators of revenue and placing the Maduro regime’s finances under intense strain.

It is the latest escalation following the biggest US military build up in the region for decades.

The US has in recent months carried out at least 25 strikes against what it says are drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing around 95 people.

The military action is ostensibly designed to crack down on drug trafficking. Yet in a revealing interview published on Tuesday, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, indicated that regime change was the president’s real goal.

“He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” she told Vanity Fair. “And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, said the Pentagon will not publicly release unedited video of a US military strike that killed two survivors of a drug boat strike in the Caribbean, sparking fears of a cover-up.

Hegseth said members of the Armed Services Committee in the House and Senate would have an opportunity this week to review the video, but did not say whether all members of Congress would be allowed to see it as well.

“Of course we’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” he told reporters as he exited a closed-door briefing with senators.