Trump Demands Venezuela Return Assets Seized from US Oil Companies
JAKARTA - President Donald Trump demands that Venezuela return assets seized from US oil companies years ago.
Trump previously announced a blockade against oil tankers sailing to or from the South American country that faces American sanctions.
Trump mentioned the loss of US investment in Venezuela when asked about his latest tactics in the campaign to pressure leader Nicolás Maduro, suggesting his administration's actions were at least partly motivated by a dispute over oil investments, along with drug trafficking allegations. Some of the tankers sanctioned have already begun diverting routes from Venezuela.
"We're not going to let anybody who shouldn't be through," Trump told reporters. "You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not long ago and we want it back. They took it - they took it illegally," Trump said, quoted by the Associated Press, Thursday, December 18.
US oil companies dominated Venezuela's oil industry until the country's leaders decided to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
The compensation offered by Venezuela is considered insufficient. In 2014, an international arbitration panel ordered the socialist government of the country to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.
Although Venezuelan oil has long dominated relations with the US, the Trump administration has focused on Maduro's ties to drug traffickers, accusing his government of facilitating the shipment of dangerous drugs to the US.
In a post on his Truth Social account on Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.
US forces last week seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid a massive military buildup that includes the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier.
The military has also carried out a series of attacks on ships suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed a total of at least 99 people, including four in an attack on Wednesday.
The attacks have prompted questions from lawmakers and legal experts about their legality. Trump also said he was considering a ground assault.