UPDATE - Trump orders oil tankers blockade in Venezuela, labels Maduro government 'terrorist'

REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, ADDS BACKGROUND

By Rabia Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, calling the Maduro government a “foreign terrorist organization.”

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, saying the blockade would remain until Caracas returned “all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets.”

He accused the regime of Nicolas Maduro of using oil revenues to fund “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping,” and said Venezuelan nationals previously sent to the US were being returned “at a rapid pace.”

The announcement comes amid mounting tensions between the two countries as Trump continues to demand Maduro step down from power, maintaining that all options, including military force, remain on the table amid a massive force buildup in the region.

The US has already carried out 22 known strikes on alleged "narco-terrorist" seaborne vessels, killing 87 people since attacks began in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean in early September.

Venezuela recently accused the US of “maritime piracy,” part of a “sustained policy of coercion and aggression” after Washington seized a Venezuelan oil shipment in international waters.

The US has justified the seizure, saying vessels are used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran in an "illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations."

The Trump administration asserts that it is targeting Venezuela as part of a push to combat drug trafficking in the region. But Caracas has countered that Washington is seeking to "appropriate Venezuela’s vast oil reserves through the lethal use of military force," suggesting anti-drug efforts are merely the groundwork for an attempt to unlawfully remove Maduro from power.