US President Donald Trump has ordered a complete blockade of sanctioned oil tankers sailing in and out of Venezuela. He wrote this on Wednesday night in a post on his own social media, Truth Social.
The post also states that the president considers the Venezuelan government to be a foreign terrorist organization.
- For the theft of our assets and for many other reasons, including terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking, the Venezuelan regime has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, writes the US president.
- Therefore, today I am ordering a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers sailing in and out of Venezuela.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government calls the blockade a grotesque threat and completely irrational. The government believes the blockade violates free trade and movement, according to the Reuters news agency in the statement.
The announcement of the blockade comes a week after the United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump has ordered a massive build-up of the US military presence in Latin America. Recently, fighter jets and tens of thousands of US soldiers have been sent to the region.
US forces have also bombed a number of suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, which has cost almost 90 lives. The US claims that the attacks are aimed at stopping drug trafficking to the US.
Nicolás Maduro, on the other hand, claims that the US is planning to remove him from office and that the US is preparing for a coup attempt by building up its military near the Venezuelan coast.
According to the Reuters news agency, the seizure of the oil tanker last week could be a sign that the US will start going after Venezuela's oil, which is the country's main source of income.
Venezuela's oil sector is already subject to US sanctions. According to the AFP news agency, seizures of Venezuelan oil could potentially paralyze the country's economy.
/ritzau/
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