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Donald Trump has ordered a “total and complete shutdown” of all oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country’s leader. Nicolas Maduro.
The move comes amid a campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro that has included a large military presence in the region and the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers on ships in the Pacific Ocean and nearby Caribbean Sea. Venezuelawhich has killed many people.
Last week, the US military he grabbed the fuel tank near the coast of Venezuela that was traveling through the Caribbean. The ship is believed to be loaded with about 2m barrels of Venezuelan crude, according to and the New York Times. Venezuela’s government accused the US of “flagrant theft” and called the seizure an “international fraud”, deepening tensions between the two countries.
In a televised address Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump said Venezuela was using oil to support drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to expand the military.
“Venezuela is surrounded by the largest Armada assembled in the history of South America,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “It will only increase, and their astonishment will be like nothing they have ever seen before… today, I am calling for a MASSIVE AND MASSIVE STRENGTH OF ALL OIL TANKS into, and out of, Venezuela.”
It is not clear how the Trump administration will block the authorized vessels, and whether it will turn to the Coast Guard to block the vessels as it did last week. The administration has moved thousands of troops and about a dozen warships — including an aircraft carrier — to the area soon.
Maduro, speaking at a ceremony on Tuesday evening before Trump’s inauguration, said: “Imperialism and the fascist right want to control Venezuela to seize its wealth of oil, gas, gold, and other minerals. We have fully sworn to defend our country and in Venezuela peace will prevail.”
Oil market participants said prices were rising in anticipation of a potential drop in Venezuela, although they were waiting to see how Trump’s blockade would be implemented and whether it would continue to include illegal shipping.
The embargo has been in effect after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with tankers carrying millions of barrels of oil sitting in Venezuelan waters instead of being seized.
Since the coup, Venezuela’s exports have plummeted, a situation made worse by a cyberattack that brought down the systems of PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil company, this week.
Although most ships carrying oil to Venezuela are prohibited, some of the country’s oil and gas shipments from Iran and Russia are not approved, and some companies, notably Chevron of the US, carry Venezuelan oil in their authorized ships.
Currently, the oil market is well supplied and there are millions of barrels of oil on trains off the coast of China waiting to be unloaded. If the ban is in place for a while, then the loss of about one million barrels per day will cause oil prices to rise.
Trump has planned actions against the country in recent months. On Tuesday, the Pentagon said it had carried out raids on three boats accused of drug trafficking in the Pacific, killing eight people. Since September 2, more than 20 protests have killed at least 95 people, mostly along the coast. Venezuela.
Several lawmakers have asked officials to release videos showing the September 2 attack, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to do so, calling the video “top secret” and saying that releasing it to the public violates “a long-term policy of the Department of War”.
The Trump administration has defended its efforts as a success, saying it has prevented drugs from reaching America’s shores, and retaliated against concerns that it was expanding the limits of legal warfare.
The government has also said the campaign is about stopping drugs from going to the US, but Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles appeared to confirm in an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday that the campaign is part of a bid to oust Maduro.
Wiles said Trump “wants to keep bombing boats until Maduro cries uncle”.
