WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a blockade of "sanctioned oil vessels" heading to and leaving Venezuela, sharply escalating his pressure campaign against Caracas while issuing new demands for the country's crude.
The United States has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean -- with the stated goal of combating drug trafficking in Latin America, but taking particular aim at Venezuela.
Caracas views the operation as a pressure campaign to oust leftist strongman Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington and many nations view as an illegitimate president.
After weeks of military jet flybys off the Venezuelan coast and deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed over 90 people, the Trump administration heightened its campaign last week by seizing an oil tanker leaving the South American nation.
It subsequently announced sanctions on several other vessels.
"Today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Tuesday evening.
Trump said the large US naval armada amassed in the Caribbean -- which includes the world's largest aircraft carrier -- "will only get bigger" until Venezuela returns "to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."
The US president did not specify which oil or land he was referring to, but Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s.
Later, under the presidency of Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez, companies were forced to cede majority control to the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.
"The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping," Trump wrote.
Maduro has repeatedly claimed the massive US military deployment within striking distance of his country is part of a plan to overthrow him and "steal" Venezuela's abundant oil under the ruse of its anti-drug operation.
Though the United States already has sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, seizing its exports could potentially cripple its already struggling economy, creating massive political headwinds for Maduro.
"If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country's imports... There could be an economic crisis," Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan advisory firm, told AFP recently.
"Not just a recession, but also shortages of food and medicine, because we wouldn't be able to import."
Venezuela has been sidestepping US oil sanctions for years, selling crude at a discounted price on the black market, mainly to China.
Venezuela is estimated to have oil reserves of some 303 billion barrels, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries -- more than any other nation.
