West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP) – President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday as the U.S. Coast Guard stepped up efforts to intercept oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s growing pressure campaign in the Caribbean Sea.
Trump was flanked by his top national security aides, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested he was ready to step up his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the aim of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has grown increasingly amorphous.
“If he wants to do something, if he plays hard, this is the last time he’s going to be able to play hard,” Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from his Florida vacation to announce plans to build a new, larger warship for the Navy.
Trump made his latest threat as the US Coast Guard continued for a second day on Monday to pursue a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration described as part of a “dark fleet” used by Venezuela to evade US sanctions. According to the White House, the tanker is flying under a false flag and is under a US judicial seizure order.
“It’s moving forward and we’re going to get through it,” Trump said.
It is the third tanker pursued by the Coast Guard, which on Saturday intercepted a Panama-flagged ship called the Centuries that U.S. officials said was part of Venezuela’s shadow fleet.
The Coast Guard, with the help of the Navy, on December 10 impounded a sanctioned tanker called the Skipper, which is also part of a shadow fleet of tankers that are operating on the shores of the law to move US-sanctioned cargo. The ship was registered in Panama.
After the first seizure, Trump said that the US would “blockade” Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said Maduro’s days in power are numbered.
Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying the announcement of an embargo against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said in a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends” that targeting the tankers “is to send a message around the world that the illegal activities that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to go, and we will stand up for our people.”
Russian diplomats are evacuating families from Caracas
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry began evicting the families of Venezuelan diplomats, according to a European intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The official told The Associated Press that the evacuation includes women and children and began Friday, and that Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in a “very serious tone.” The ministry said in an X-posting that it had not evacuated the embassy but did not address the question of whether it was evacuating the diplomats’ families.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said on Monday that he spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who expressed Russia’s support for Venezuela against Trump’s announced blockade of banned oil tankers.
“We reviewed the acts of aggression and flagrant violations of international law committed in the Caribbean: attacks against ships and extrajudicial killings, and unlawful acts of piracy by the United States government,” Gill said in a statement.
A view near a refinery on the beach in Venezuela
As US forces targeted ships in international waters over the weekend, a tanker believed to be part of the shadow fleet was spotted amid Venezuelan refineries about three hours west of the capital, Caracas.
The tanker remained at the refinery in El Palito until Sunday, when families went to the town’s beach to relax with their children on vacation from school.
Music played over loudspeakers as people swam and surfed with a tanker in the background. Families and groups of teenagers enjoyed it, but Manuel Salazar, who has parked his car on the beach for more than three decades, noticed differences from years past, when the country’s oil-dependent economy was in good shape and the energy industry produced at least double the current 1 million barrels a day.
“Nine or 10 tankers will be waiting there in the bay. One will leave, another will come in,” Salazar, 68, said. “Now look, one.”
The tanker in El Palito has been identified by Transparencia Venezuela, an independent watchdog that promotes government accountability, as part of a shadow fleet.
Residents in the area on Sunday recalled tankers honking their horns at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and some even set off fireworks to celebrate the holiday.
“Before, on holidays, they ate barbecues; now you see bread with bologna,” Salazar said of Venezuelan families vacationing on the beach next to the refinery. “Things are expensive. Food prices are increasing every day.”
Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled National Assembly on Monday gave preliminary approval to a measure that would criminalize a wide range of activities that could lead to the seizure of oil tankers.
Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello, who introduced the bill, said people who promote, solicit, support, finance or participate in “piracy, embargo or other international illegal acts” against commercial entities operating with the South American country could face fines and prison terms of up to 20 years.
The Defense Department, under Trump’s order, continues a campaign of raids on small vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that it accuses of carrying drugs to and from the United States.
At least 105 people have died in 29 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from US lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has produced little evidence that its targets are actually drug traffickers and that the deadly strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
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Garcia Cano reported from El Palito, Venezuela, and Burroughs reported from London.
