Trump-Venezuela latest: US threatens to control oil ‘indefinitely’ as authorities say 100 killed in Maduro raid

Donald Trump has suggested US involvement in Venezuela could last for years as they “rebuild” the country with seized oil money.

The US president was asked by the New York Times whether he foresaw the US overseeing Venezuela for three months, six months, a year or longer.

“I would say much longer,” he said, in an interview published early on Thursday. “Only time will tell,” he added.

Trump insisted that Venezuela would be rebuild “in a very profitable way”, adding: “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”

He said that the US was “getting along very well” with interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who replaced ousted leader Nicolas Maduro on Monday.

President Donald Trump has said that “only time will tell” how long the U.S. will maintain oversight of Venezuela.

When asked by the New York Times if it would be three months, six months, a year, or longer, Trump said: “I would say much longer.”

President Trump wants to increase next year’s military budget to $1.5 trillion, in what would be the largest jump ever in defense spending, up from this year’s $901 billion allocation.

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, the president said the windfall would help bolster U.S. forces during these “very troubled and dangerous times.” In recent days, the White House has pursued military action in Venezuela and across the Caribbean, and has threatened Greenland, Colombia and Mexico.

“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” the president wrote in his post.

Venezuela’s interior minister Diosdado Cabello has claimed that at least 100 people died in the U.S. attack over the weekend to seize sitting president Nicolas Maduro.

Caracas had not previously released a death toll, but the army later published a list naming 23 soldiers killed.

Venezuelan officials said a significant portion of Maduro’s security detail was killed “in cold blood,” while Cuba reported that 32 of its military and intelligence personnel in Venezuela were killed.

Russia said on Wednesday that the U.S. seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic was a violation of maritime law.

“In accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation applies in the high seas, and no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states,” the transport ministry said in a statement.

It said contact with the vessel, the Marinera, had been lost after U.S. naval forces boarded it.

A senior Russian lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, Andrei Klishas, said the seizure was an act of outright piracy, the TASS state news agency reported.

The U.S. said on Wednesday it had seized a Russian-flagged, Venezuela-linked tanker as part of president Donald Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Caracas’ socialist government to become its ally.

British RAF spy planes and submarine hunters circled above as US special forces boarded an empty Russian-flagged Venezuelan oil tanker in the north Atlantic in an expensive performance verging on satire.

The Marinera was chased across the oceans, switched its nationality to Russian mid-journey, painted Moscow’s flag on its side and chugged along shadowed by one of Vladimir Putin’s submarines.

But the elite sailors beneath the sea offered the ageing tanker no real protection. And while the Kremlin has loudly condemned Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, the Marinera’s voyage did not end with nautical fisticuffs between two nuclear powers.

^{_{The seizure of the oil tanker Marinera and Britain’s role in it is an embarrassing farce, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley on the Venezuelan-Colombian border}}

Russia reportedly deployed a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker, which was later seized by the U.S.

The vessel, formerly known as Bella 1, has spent more than two weeks trying to evade a U.S. crackdown on sanctioned tankers near Venezuela.

It failed to dock and load oil, but despite being empty, the U.S. Coast Guard pursued it into the Atlantic as part of efforts to disrupt a shadow fleet that ferries illicit oil worldwide, including black-market crude sold by Russia.

Alarmed by U.S. seizures of tankers carrying its illicit oil, Russia made the unusual move of allowing the vessel to register without inspection or formalities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Moscow had asked Washington to stop pursuing the tanker, according to three U.S. officials. On Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry said it was monitoring the situation “with concern,” according to state news agency RIA.

The weeks-long chase across the Atlantic ended on Wednesday morning when the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces, bearing a judicial seizure warrant, apprehended the Marinera crude oil tanker.