Trump orders blockade of sanctioned oil tankers in Venezuela

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South AmericaAmericaAmerica,” Trump wrote on social media Tuesday. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

Trump said he was also designating the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a “FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.” And he accused the “illegitimate” regime of “using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping.”

The move represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure on Maduro, whom it has accused of presiding over a narco-trafficking operation. Last week, the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.