President Donald Trump is scheduled to make an announcement alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday afternoon.
The event has been set for 4.30 pm ET but no further details have yet been revealed about what the president intends to say.
However, the development comes after the U.S. Coast Guard seized a second sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela over the weekend and announced it was “pursuing” a third.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement posted to social media after the capture of the second vessel, following an earlier interception made on December 10.
“We will find you, and we will stop you.”
An unnamed U.S. official has since told Reuters of the third ship: “The United States Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion. It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”
The moves mark an escalation of Trump’s aggressions against Venezuela and its president, Nicolas Maduro, after he announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the Central American country’s ports.
The administration has also engaged in a series of lethal missile strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific this fall, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people.
More follows…
