Trump : directs that all sanctioned oil vessels entering and leaving Venezuela be completely blocked
Trump : The pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s regime increased dramatically on Tuesday (local time) when US President Donald Trump declared a “total and complete blockade” of any sanctioned oil vessels entering or departing Venezuela.
Venezuela has been labeled a “foreign terrorist organization,” according to a statement Trump put on Truth Social. He also charged the Maduro administration of using oil profits 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,” he wrote in big letters. The Maduro regime is quickly returning the criminals and illegal aliens it sent to the United States under the incompetent and weak Biden administration to Venezuela.
Trump warned that pressure on Caracas will only increase, claiming that Venezuela is now encircled by what he described as the greatest naval force ever assembled in South America. He said that those transferred to the US by the Maduro government under the previous administration were being returned to Venezuela “at a rapid pace” and connected the action to illegal immigration.
Until what he called stolen US assets, including as oil, land, and other resources, are restored, he claimed, the situation will stay the same.
The declaration of the embargo coincides with Trump’s frequent warnings of potential ground attacks on Venezuelan territory. By focusing on Caracas’ primary source of income, oil exports, it represents a further hardening of Washington’s position against the city.
Following new US sanctions earlier this year and the recent seizure of a vessel transporting Venezuelan petroleum, the country’s oil industry was already under significant pressure. Trump has consistently said that if Maduro is overthrown, the US should reclaim access to Venezuela’s energy riches, making oil a key component of his Venezuela strategy, CNN reported.
Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a state-owned company, is in charge of the nation’s petroleum sector. The only American company actively drilling in Venezuela is US oil giant Chevron, which is doing it under a sanctions exemption that permits only a limited amount of operations. Chevron gives PDVSA a portion of its production under that agreement.
Before the industry was nationalized in the 1970s, US corporations used to be much more prevalent in Venezuela’s oil fields. Trump has made it clear that he wants the US to get back into the oil business in Venezuela. Despite having the greatest known oil reserves in the world, Venezuela’s output is still significantly below potential because of years of underinvestment and sanctions. China presently receives a large portion of its oil exports.
Since 2005, the United States has placed sanctions on Venezuela. Washington successfully prevented PDVSA from shipping petroleum to the US in 2019, during Trump’s first term. In an attempt to lower petroleum costs worldwide, former President Joe Biden subsequently gave Chevron a license to operate in Venezuela in 2022. According to CNN, Trump suspended the license in March and then reissued it with stringent requirements that prevented any earnings from going to the Maduro regime.
The president has threatened Venezuela with a potential attack, and the Trump administration has also initiated strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean in recent months.