President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro in a move that appeared designed to place a tighter chokehold on the South American nation’s economy.
Trump’s escalation comes after US forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, an unusual move that followed a build-up of military forces in the region. In a social media post tuesday night announcing the blockade,Trump alleged that Venezuela was using oil revenue to fund drug trafficking and other crimes. He vowed to continue the military build-up until the country turned over oil, land and other assets to the United States, though it was not clear why he believed the US had a claim to them.
“Venezuela is fully surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said on his social media platform. “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.”
Pentagon officials referred all questions about the post to the White House.
Venezuela’s government press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But before Trump’s announcement Tuesday, Maduro praised Venezuela for having “proven to be a strong country” in the face of US pressure.
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“Venezuela has 25 weeks denouncing, confronting and defeating a campaign of multidimensional aggression, ranging from psychological terrorism to the piracy of the corsairs who assaulted the oil tanker,” Maduro said on state television Tuesday.
He added, “We have taken the oath to defend our homeland, and that on this soil peace and shared happiness triumph.”
The military build-up has been accompanied by a series of strikes on boats in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The campaign, which has drawn bipartisan scrutiny from US lawmakers, has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on vessels.
Trump has for weeks said the US will move its campaign beyond the water and begin strikes on land.
The Trump administration has defended the strikes as a success, saying they have prevented drugs from reaching American shores, while pushing back on concerns that the operations stretch the bounds of lawful warfare.
While administration officials have said the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the US, Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, appeared to confirm in a vanity Fair interview published Tuesday that the effor
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