Trump surrounds ‘terrorist’ Venezula regime with ‘largest Armada’ | World | News
President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” destined for Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
The move comes as Trump declared the Venezuelan regime a “designated terrorist organization” in a bid to take tighter control of the South American country’s economy.
Trump’s escalation comes after US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week; this was an unusual move following the buildup of military forces in the region.
In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump claimed Venezuela was using oil to finance drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue military build-up until the country gives oil, land and assets to the United States.
Trump Claims Venezuela Stealing US Assets, Citing ‘Terrorism, Drug Trafficking and Human Trafficking’
“Due to the theft of our assets and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Trafficking, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said in a post on the social media platform. he said. “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” he claimed.
“It will get bigger and bigger and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before – Until all the Oil, Land and other Assets they previously stole from us are returned to the United States.”
This increase was accompanied by a series of military attacks on vessels in international waters in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The campaign, which has been the subject of bipartisan scrutiny among US lawmakers, has killed at least 95 people in 25 known attacks on ships. The Trump administration defended it as a success, saying it prevented the drugs from reaching American shores and pushed back on concerns that it was expanding the legal battle.
Trump’s chief of staff confirms campaign to oust Maduro
While the Trump administration has said the campaign is about stopping drugs heading into the United States, Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, confirmed in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday that the campaign is part of the effort to oust Maduro. Wiles said Trump “wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro cries uncle.”
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces approximately 1 million barrels of oil per day, has long relied on oil revenues as the lifeblood of its economy.
Since the Trump administration began imposing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, Maduro’s government has relied on an unspecified fleet of flagless tankers to smuggle crude oil into global supply chains.
