President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Venezuela on Tuesday by announcing that he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering and leaving the South American country.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before."
He then added that he is "ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," arguing that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government is using oil revenue to finance illicit operations, including "drug terrorism."
The U.S. has sanctioned three of Maduro’s nephews and repeatedly conducted deadly military strikes against boats from the Caribbean that it alleges are carrying drugs.
Venezuela’s government released a statement Tuesday accusing Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with what it called “a reckless and grave threat.”
It added: “On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property.”
The statement said of Trump’s post: “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”
Maduro’s government plans to denounce the situation before the United Nations, the statement said.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview for part of a two-part profile published Tuesday by Vanity Fair that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
Tensions escalated further last week when U.S. forces seized an oil tanker in waters near Venezuela.
Trump’s announcement of a blockade could be the prelude to the seizure of more ships. The Skipper, the large oil tanker that the U.S. military seized Wednesday, was a sanctioned vessel that the administration has said was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
The Skipper, which was falsely flagged as a Guyanese vessel, was reportedly carrying about 1.8 million barrels of oil, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence company, which noted in a report on its site after the seizure last week that there are several other possible targets.
“There are at least seven other falsely flagged, sanctioned tankers similar to Skipper loitering off Venezuela, making them prime targets for further intervention as the U.S. administration intensifies pressure on the Maduro government by targeting its oil revenues,” the report said.
Trump has also said U.S. operations against alleged narco-traffickers will soon expand onto land.
"We're going to start hitting them on land, which is a lot easier to do, frankly," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
"These are a direct military threat to the United States of America. They're trying to drug out our country," he said.
Democrats have raised concerns over the military strikes, particularly after the White House confirmed that Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, who then led Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a second strike on a boat coming from Venezuela allegedly carrying narcotics on Sept. 2. The second strike killed survivors of an earlier strike that day, and some lawmakers have suggested it could amount to a war crime.
After a classified briefing Tuesday, some Senate Democrats said video of the strike should be released to the full chamber.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that he would share video of the second strike with select congressional committees Wednesday but that he did not plan to publicly release the video.
More than two dozen strikes on suspected drug boats by U.S. forces in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean since early September have killed nearly 100 people, according to the Pentagon.
