WASHINGTON — U.S. forces on Saturday stopped a vessel off the coast of Venezuela for the second time in less than two weeks as President Trump continues to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The move, which was confirmed by two U.S. officials familiar with the matter, comes days after Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country and follows the Dec. 10 seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
The officials were not authorized to discuss publicly the ongoing military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The action was described as a “consented boarding,” with the tanker stopping voluntarily and allowing U.S. forces to board, one official said.
The Pentagon and White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump earlier this month announced that the U.S. Coast Guard had seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea and vowed that the U.S. would carry out a blockade of Venezuela. It comes as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Maduro and warned that the longtime Venezuelan leader’s days in power are numbered.
Trump this week demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a blockade against tankers to and from the country that face American sanctions.
Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in his campaign against Maduro, suggesting the moves are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with previous accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are diverted away from Venezuela.
“We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through,” Trump told reporters. “You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it.”
U.S. oil companies dominated Venezuela’s petroleum industry until the country’s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in recent decades under Maduro and his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.
The targeting of tankers comes as Trump has ordered the Defense Department to carry out attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that his administration alleges are smuggling illegal drugs into the United States.
At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September.
The strikes have faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are drug smugglers and note that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings. At least some of the victims have been fisherman or other common laborers, Associated Press reporting has found.
The Coast Guard, sometimes with help from the Navy, over the years has frequently interdicted boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean, searched for illicit cargo and arrested the people aboard for prosecution.
The administration has justified the strikes as necessary, asserting it is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that is aimed at halting the flow of narcotics into the United States. Maduro faces federal charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
The U.S. in recent months has sent a fleet of warships to the region, the largest buildup of forces in generations, and Trump has threatened repeatedly that land attacks are coming soon.
Maduro has said the only purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from power.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
Toropin writes for the Associated Press.
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