WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid mounting tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
It's the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said “other things are happening,” but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later.
The seizure was carried led by the U.S Coast Guard led effort and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A day earlier, the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace since the start of the administration’s pressure campaign.
The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered any details on location.
Among the concessions the U.S. has made to Maduro during past negotiations was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.
