Quick overview

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President Donald Trump increased pressure on Caracas by announcing he was ordering a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela amid a US military buildup in the area and the threat of land strikes. Trump posted on social media on Tuesday, saying, “The largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America surrounds Venezuela. ”

Until they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us, it will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”

Additionally, Trump declared that the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela was a “FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”.

Additionally, he charged that the “illegitimate” government was “financing themselves with oil from these stolen oil fields, drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.” The action indicates that the Trump administration is intensifying pressure on Maduro. Venezuela denounced Trump’s most recent action as a “reckless and serious” threat.

In a statement released late on Tuesday on Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s Telegram account, the government claimed that Trump “intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed military blockade of Venezuela to steal the riches that belong to our homeland. “

Venezuela reiterates that it is sovereign over all of its natural resources. In a statement, Venezuela said that the “grave” breach of international law would be immediately denounced by its ambassador to the UN. The Skipper, a sanctioned oil tanker, was apprehended by the US last week off the coast of Venezuela.

Following the seizure, three supertankers that were initially bound for Venezuela changed their course a day later, and a fourth one did so earlier this week. Additionally, the Pentagon has killed dozens in over 20 strikes against alleged drug-trafficking ships in waters close to Venezuela and Colombia.