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Trump orders blockade of sanctioned ships entering and leaving Venezuela

2025-12-17 08:37:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Donald Trump has ordered a "complete and total" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country's authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The move comes amid a growing campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro, which has included an increased military presence in the region and more than two dozen military attacks on ships in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed dozens of people.

Last week, US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as it was traveling through the Caribbean. According to the New York Times, the tanker was believed to be carrying about 2 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude oil. The Venezuelan government accused the US of "flagrant theft" and described the seizure as "an act of international piracy," further escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a social media post on Tuesday evening announcing the blockade, Trump said Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Army 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… today, I am ordering a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social.

It is unclear how the Trump administration will enforce the blockade against the sanctioned ships and whether it will call on the Coast Guard to stop the ships as it did last week. The administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships, including an aircraft carrier, to the region recently.

Maduro, speaking at an event Tuesday evening before Trump's tweet, said: "Imperialism and the fascist right want to colonize Venezuela to take its wealth of oil, gas, gold, among other minerals. We have sworn absolutely to defend our homeland and in Venezuela peace will triumph."

The Venezuelan government said it rejected Trump's blockade order as a "grotesque threat," Reuters reported.

"The President of the United States intends to impose, in a completely unreasonable manner, an alleged naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing assets belonging to our homeland," the government said in a statement.

Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, called the blockade "unequivocally an act of war."

"A war that Congress never authorized and that the American people do not want," Castro said on social media.

Oil market participants said prices were rising in anticipation of a possible reduction in Venezuelan exports, although they were still waiting to see how Trump's blockade would be implemented and whether it would be extended to include non-sanctioned ships.

There has been an effective embargo in place since the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with laden ships carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.

Since the seizure, Venezuela's crude oil exports have fallen sharply, a situation exacerbated by a cyberattack that brought down the administrative systems of PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company, this week./CNA, translated by The Guardian