President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that the United States has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker. In recent months, the American president has led an intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, officially framed as a fight against drug smuggling but widely understood as an effort to push Maduro from power.
The tanker seizure is seen as a major escalation with Caracas, amid growing questions over whether Trump might order a direct strike on Venezuelan soil. “We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He added that “other things are happening” but gave no details.
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Donald Trump and Nicolás Maduro
(Photo: JHONN ZERPA / VENEZUELAN PRESIDENCY / AFP, AP / Alex Brandon)
A U.S. official told the Associated Press that the Coast Guard carried out the operation with support from the Navy and that it was conducted under U.S. law. According to the British maritime risk firm Vanguard, the United States imposed sanctions on the tanker because, when it previously sailed under the name Adissa, it was allegedly involved in Iranian oil trade, according to Washington.
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and produces about a million barrels a day. U.S. sanctions have largely cut it off from the global oil market, leaving China as its main buyer at a discounted rate. Maduro has recently claimed that the American pressure campaign — which has included a major U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean near Venezuela — is aimed at seizing his country’s oil reserves.
In a lengthy interview with Politico focused mainly on the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump addressed the Venezuela issue yesterday and refused to say whether he would order strikes inside the South American nation. His military campaign against drug smuggling has so far involved only attacks on “drug boats” in Caribbean waters near Venezuela, making Wednesday’s tanker seizure an escalation.
“I don’t comment on that. I wouldn’t say that one way or the other,” Trump said when asked about deploying troops on Venezuelan soil. “I can’t talk about strategy,” he added, but repeated his recent assertion that Maduro’s “days in power are numbered.” Trump also said he would be willing to “consider” strikes on targets in other countries, including Colombia and Mexico, as part of the anti-smuggling effort.
Later Wednesday, Trump again mentioned Colombia and issued a direct threat against its president, Gustavo Petro, a leftist critic of the American leader. Petro has condemned U.S. strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean as war crimes and urged American troops not to follow Trump’s orders. Trump, who has previously called Petro a “drug leader,” said: “He’s been fairly hostile to the United States, and I haven’t given a lot of thought. He’s gonna have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up. Did he say Colombia’s producing a lot of drugs? They have cocaine factories where they make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States. So he better wise up or he’ll be next. He’ll be next.”