{"id":4415,"date":"2025-12-17T06:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/trump-orders-naval-blockade-of-sanctioned-venezuelan-oil-tankers\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T06:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:35:13","slug":"trump-orders-naval-blockade-of-sanctioned-venezuelan-oil-tankers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/trump-orders-naval-blockade-of-sanctioned-venezuelan-oil-tankers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump orders naval blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States President Donald Trump has ordered \u201ca total and complete\u201d blockade of all US-sanctioned oil tankers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/upfront\/2025\/12\/14\/why-the-us-is-targeting-venezuela\">entering and leaving Venezuela.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cVenezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,\u201d Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/16\/top-trump-aide-suggests-boat-strikes-aim-to-topple-venezuelas-maduro\">Top Trump aide suggests boat strikes aim to topple Venezuela\u2019s Maduro<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/16\/us-military-kills-eight-in-latest-attacks-on-vessels-in-eastern-pacific\">US military kills 8 in latest attacks on vessels in eastern Pacific<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/15\/venezuela-slams-european-councils-renewed-sanctions-as-futile\">Venezuela slams European Council\u2019s renewed sanctions as \u2018futile\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/14\/jetblue-flight-near-venezuela-avoids-midair-collision-with-us-tanker\">JetBlue flight near Venezuela avoids \u2018midair collision\u2019 with US tanker<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cFor 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,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTherefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Venezuelan government issued a statement in response to the announced blockade, saying it rejected Trump\u2019s \u201cgrotesque threat\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our homeland,\u201d the government said.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that \u201cthe world will rise up against piracy and oil plunder\u201d over the US administration\u2019s \u201ctheft\u201d last week of a tanker vessel carrying Venezuelan crude oil, the Agencia Venezuela News site reported.<\/p>\n<p>US forces <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/11\/russias-putin-affirms-support-for-venezuela-after-us-seizes-oil-tanker\">seized the Skipper<\/a> oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and were reported to have brought the vessel to the US state of Texas to unload its oil cargo.<\/p>\n<p>US Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing Texas, said Trump\u2019s blockade was \u201cunquestionably an act of war\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,\u201d Castro said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Castro added that US lawmakers will have an opportunity on Thursday to vote on a resolution \u201cdirecting the President to end hostilities with Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery member of the House of Representatives will have the opportunity to decide if they support sending Americans into yet another regime change war,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"venezuela-turns-to-unsc-for-help\">Venezuela turns to UNSC for help<\/h2>\n<p>Trump\u2019s blockade comes amid a huge buildup of US military forces off the Venezuelan coast, in an operation said to target drug smuggling.<\/p>\n<p>The US military has killed at least 90 people since September in attacks on dozens of vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, in what international law experts have criticised as extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n<p>Washington claimed the vessels were involved in drug trafficking, but has provided no evidence to support its allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Officials in Caracas have said for months that the deployment of US forces to the region was aimed at allowing \u201cexternal powers to rob Venezuela\u2019s immeasurable <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/1\/venezuela-calls-on-opec-to-counter-us-threats\">oil and gas wealth<\/a>\u201d and US claims of tackling drug trafficking was a pretext to justify regime change.<\/p>\n<p>The South American country holds the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela\u2019s United Nations representative, Samuel Moncada, delivered a letter to the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday, \u201cformally denouncing\u201d the US seizure of Venezuela\u2019s Skipper oil tanker last week and the \u201ckidnapping\u201d of its crew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an act of state piracy carried out through the use of military force, which constitutes a blatant theft of assets that do not belong to the United States of America, but are part of the legitimate international trade of a member state of the United Nations,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n<p>The Reuters news agency has reported that only tankers chartered by US oil giant Chevron had left Venezuela\u2019s ports and sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude since the seizure of the Skipper. Chevron has US government authorisation to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA, and can export its oil to the US, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n<p>Strict US sanctions on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/13\/venezuela-oil-exports-fall-steeply-after-us-forces-seize-tanker-off-coast\">Venezuelan oil exports<\/a>, imposed during Trump\u2019s first administration and tightened at the beginning of his second term, have added to the country\u2019s dire economic struggles.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, a US court also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/12\/3\/venezuela-denounces-us-ordered-forced-sale-of-oil-company-citgo\">ordered the forced sale<\/a> of Venezuelan oil company Citgo in the US to pay off billions of dollars in debts.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/INTERACTIVE-US-seizes-oil-tanker-off-Venezuela-coast-map-1765444506.png?quality=80\" alt=\"INTERACTIVE US seizes oil tanker off Venezuela coast map-1765444506\" data-interactive=\"true\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States President Donald Trump has ordered \u201ca total and complete\u201d blockade of all US-sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. \u201cVenezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,\u201d Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday evening. Recommended Stories list &#8230; <a title=\"Trump orders naval blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/12\/17\/trump-orders-naval-blockade-of-sanctioned-venezuelan-oil-tankers\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump orders naval blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}