Trump calls for ‘total and complete blockade’ of sanctioned oil tankers from Venezuela in escalation of tensions

President Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers from Venezuela in an escalation of tensions with the South American country.

The president’s latest announcement comes as part of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump has placed hundreds of American troops and ships near Venezuela’s coastline and U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, an unusual move that followed a buildup of military forces in the region.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. 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,” Trump said on Truth Social Tuesday evening.

Trump accused Maduro of using oil to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.”

“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” the president continued. “The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace.”

The buildup in tension has been accompanied by a series of military strikes on boats in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

The campaign, which has drawn bipartisan scrutiny among U.S. lawmakers, has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on vessels.

The Trump administration has defended it as a success, saying it has prevented drugs from reaching American shores, and they pushed back on concerns that it is stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.

The administration has said the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the U.S., but Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles appeared to confirm in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday that the campaign is part of a push to oust Maduro.

Wiles said Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

• For more: Elrisala website and for social networking, you can follow us on Facebook
• Source of information and images “independent”“