JAKARTA - President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" on a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker, increasing American pressure on the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America," Trump wrote in a long post on the Truth Social platform, reported by ABC News, Wednesday, December 17.
"This fleet will get bigger, and the surprise for them will be like something they have never seen before - until they return to the United States all the oil, land, and other assets they previously stole from us," he continued.
It is not clear what oil and land stolen by Trump is. However, under Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan government seized assets from several American oil companies after the country nationalized oil fields in 2007.
In the upload, Trump announced a "TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL OIL TANKER SHIPS SUBJECT TO SANCTIONS entering and leaving Venezuela" and demanded the return of oil and assets.
The Venezuelan government responded to Trump's post, calling his declaration a "flippant and serious threat" to the country, which they said violated international law, free trade, and freedom of navigation.
"The President of the United States intends to impose, in a completely irrational way, a naval military blockade against Venezuela with the aim of stealing wealth that belongs to our homeland," the Venezuelan government said in a statement.
The US currently has 11 warships in the Caribbean - the most in decades - but even with the increased presence, it is unlikely to be enough to impose a blockade in the traditional sense, which involves completely closing a country's coastline.
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