Trump has ordered the total blockade of oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela
The US president has stressed that "Maduro's illegitimate regime is using stolen oil to finance drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping, among others."
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the "total blockade of all oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela" to increase Washington's pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.
Trump has claimed that Venezuela "is surrounded by the largest army ever in the history of South America," and that the impression will be unprecedented until the United States "returns all the oil, land, and other assets previously stolen."
In this way, the Republican has announced a "total blockade" on oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in a significant escalation of the military operation launched in international Caribbean waters.
In his message, the president added that "Maduro's illegitimate regime is using stolen oil to finance drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping."
Following the president's order, it is not clear how many oil tankers it will affect, nor what consequences this measure will have for the Venezuelan oil industry.
Last week, the South American Command (a group that since August has attacked more than 30 boats allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the East Pacific) made a change in its international water strategy by confiscating the Skipper tanker, which was transporting Venezuelan crude oil near the coast of the South American country, and was intercepted by US forces in the Caribbean by court order.
Washington sanctioned the ship for its connection to a "shadow fleet" of crude oil transport and was taken to a U.S. port to begin a process of confiscation of cargo.
Pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has escalated and even tightened relations between the two countries, as well as a decline in the embargo on Venezuelan oil and the threat of further confiscation of oil tankers in neighbouring waters.
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