WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will order a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” headed to Venezuela, increasing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with a move that appears designed to further suffocate the South American country's economy.

The escalation comes after the U.S. military seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week. last, an unusual measure that took place in the context of an increase in the US naval contingent in the region. In a social media post Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged that Venezuela was using oil to finance drug trafficking and other crimes, and vowed to escalate the military presence until the country returned oil, land and assets to the United States, although it was unclear why Trump believed the United States had a claim.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Navy ever assembled in the history of South America,” Trump posted on his social network. “It will only increase in size, and the impact on them will be something they have never seen until they return to the United States all the oil, land and other assets they previously stole from us.”

Pentagon officials referred all questions about the publication to the White House.

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The government of Venezuela issued a statement on Tuesday in which it accuses Trump of violating “international law, free trade and free navigability” with “a reckless and serious threat” against the South American country.

“On his social networks, he assumes that Venezuela's oil, land and mining wealth are his property,” the statement said in reference to Trump's publication. "And consequently, Venezuela must hand over all its wealth immediately. The president of the United States intends to absolutely irrationally impose a supposed naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our homeland."

According to the statement, the Maduro government plans to denounce the situation before the United Nations.

The increase in the military contingent has been accompanied by a series of attacks against vessels in international waters in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The campaign, which has drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers of both parties, has claimed the lives of at least 95 people in 25 known attacks.

Trump has said for several weeks that the United States will also begin a campaign of ground attacks.

The Trump administration has described the campaign as a success, saying it has prevented some drugs from reaching the United States, and has rejected concerns that it tests the legal limits of a conflict. armed.

The White House has said that the goal of the campaign is to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. But Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, appeared to confirm in an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday that the attacks are part of a plan to overthrow Maduro.

Wiles said Trump “wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro surrenders.”

Tuesday night's announcement appeared to have a similar goal.

Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world and produces about a million barrels a day, has long relied on oil revenues to sustain its economy.

Since Trump began imposing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, the government Maduro has relied on a clandestine fleet of flagless ships to smuggle crude oil into global supply chains.

The state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) is excluded from global oil markets due to US sanctions. It sells most of its exports on China's black market.

Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston, said about 850,000 barrels of the daily production of one million are exported. Of that, he highlighted, 80% goes to China, 15% to 17% goes to the United States through Chevron Corp., and the rest to Cuba.

Trump last October appeared to confirm reports that Maduro has in recent months offered a stake in Venezuela's oil wealth and other mineral resources to try to alleviate growing pressure from the United States.

“He has offered everything,” Trump asserted at the time. "Do you know why? Because he doesn't want to mess with the United States."

At the moment it is not clear how the United States plans to implement what Trump announced as a "total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela."

The US Navy has 11 ships, including an aircraft carrier and several amphibious assault ships, in the region.

Those ships are accompanied by a wide range of aircraft, including helicopters and V-22 Ospreys. Additionally, the Navy has been operating P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft in the region.

In total, those assets provide the military with a significant capability to monitor maritime traffic entering and leaving the country.

In his social media post, Trump said that the “Venezuelan regime has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization,” but it was unclear what he meant.

Historically, the foreign terrorist organization designation has been reserved. for non-state actors that lack sovereign immunity conferred by treaties or membership in the United Nations.

The Trump administration announced in November that it would designate the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization. The term Cartel of the Suns originally referred to Venezuelan military officers involved in drug trafficking, but it is not a cartel per se.

Governments that the Americans seek to sanction for financing, encouraging or tolerating extremist violence are often designated as “state sponsors of terrorism.”

Venezuela is not on that list.

In unusual cases, the United States has designated some element of a foreign government as a “foreign terrorist organization”. The Trump administration did so in its first term with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the Iranian government, which had already been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Matt Le in Washington and Regina García Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a text tool. Generative artificial intelligence.