Trump Orders Total Blockade on Venezuela’s Oil Tankers

President Donald Trump has ramped up the pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime by initiating a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.

Trump shared this announcement on Truth Social, asserting that the Venezuelan government has now been classified as a foreign terrorist organization.

He pointed out that Venezuela is “completely surrounded by the largest armada in the history of South America,” reinforcing a previous airspace blockade he had declared.

According to Trump, “It will be even greater, and the impact on them will be unlike anything we have seen before, until they return to the United States all the oil, land, and other assets they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro regime uses oil from these stolen oil fields to fund narco-terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.”

He elaborated further:

“Due to the theft of our assets, and many other reasons including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking, the Venezuelan regime has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. Therefore, I am ordering today a complete and total blockade of all licensed oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. Illegal aliens and criminals brought into the United States by the Maduro regime during the weak and incompetent Biden administration are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. Just as the United States will not allow criminals, terrorists, or other countries to rob, intimidate, or harm our country, we will not allow hostile regimes to seize our oil, land, or other assets, all of which must be immediately returned to the United States. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.”

The officials within the Maduro government condemned Trump’s decision. They accused him of attempting to impose an “unreasonable naval blockade on Venezuela” to steal resources that rightfully belong to their homeland.

The Maduro administration’s U.N. ambassador denounced the blockade, urging both the American public and the global community to “reject this extraordinary threat by any means necessary.”

Trump’s announcement signifies a heightened escalation in tensions between the United States and the Venezuelan regime, particularly in the wake of a recent U.S. military operation that seized a licensed oil tanker near Venezuela. Maduro fiercely criticized this action, likening it to something out of “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Before Trump’s announcement, Maduro had called for “massive protests of international oil workers” against the “theft” of the seized tanker, advocating for global solidarity among oil workers to defend the right to free trade in Venezuela’s primary export.

He expressed that the oil working class must engage with shipowners and organizations around the world to prepare for substantial protests against what he termed the piracy of the U.S. government.