The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a new round of sanctions as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to isolate Venezuela’s oil industry. stress exercise against South American countries.

The sanctions announced Wednesday target four companies and their associated tankers that are allegedly involved in transporting Venezuelan oil.

Trump has claimed that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro leads a so-called “narco-terrorist” government aimed at destabilizing the United States, a charge repeated in the latest sanctions announcement.

“The Maduro regime has increasingly relied on a global shadow fleet to facilitate sanctioned activities, including sanctions evasion, and to generate revenue for its destabilizing operations,” the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

Oil is Venezuela’s main export, but the Trump administration has sought to cut the country off from international markets.

Wednesday’s notice accuses four tankers — the Nord Star, the Rosalind, the Valiant and the Della — of helping Venezuela’s oil sector circumvent existing sanctions and thereby providing “funding for Maduro’s illegal narco-terrorist regime.”

“President Trump has made it clear: We will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while flooding America with deadly drugs,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant.

“Treasury will continue President Trump’s pressure campaign on the Maduro regime.”

Claims over Venezuelan oil

A day after Washington imposes sanctions sanctions Another Venezuelan company says it assembles Iranian-designed drones.

In recent months, the Trump administration has cited a variety of motivations for increasing pressure on Venezuela, ranging from immigration to Maduro’s disputed 2024 election.

Trump, for example, sees the pressure campaign as a means to stem the illegal drug trade, even though Venezuela exports virtually no fentanyl, the government’s main target.

Critics also accuse Washington of trying to overthrow Maduro’s government to gain control of the country’s vast oil reserves.

Those suspicions were fueled by comments from Trump officials who appeared to claim ownership of Venezuelan oil.

December 17, the day after Trump was elected Announce His senior adviser Stephen Miller says there will be a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers in and out of Venezuela claim The United States “created the oil industry in Venezuela.”

He said the oil was stolen from the United States when Venezuela began nationalizing its oil industry in 1976.

This process accelerated after the 1998 election of socialist President Hugo Chavez, who reasserted state control over Venezuela’s oil industry, culminating in the 2007 seizure of foreign assets.

Miller’s “brutal expropriation” plan allegedly“the largest theft of American wealth and property ever recorded.”

Still, major U.S. oil company Chevron continues to operate in the country.

Trump responded to Mueller’s claims, writing online that the United States “will not allow a hostile regime to seize our oil, land, or any other assets.”

He added that all these assets “must be returned to the United States immediately.”

Caribbean military buildup

The Trump administration has stepped up its focus on Venezuela’s oil industry in recent months, taking a series of military actions against tankers.

The government seized the first tanker, the Skipper, on December 10 and the second tanker 10 days later.

The U.S. military has reportedly been hunting a third oil tanker crossing the Atlantic.

The attack on the tanker comes months after the United States began sending aircraft, warships and other military assets to the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.

Since September 2, the U.S. military has carried out dozens of bombings in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs, in what human rights groups have called extrajudicial killings.

More than 100 people have been killed, and the government has provided no adequate legal basis for the attacks.

On Monday, Trump told reporters that the United States had attacked a “dockside area” in Venezuela that he claimed was used to load alleged drug-trafficking ships.

The terminal explosion is believed to be the first of its kind on Venezuelan soil, although Trump has long threatened to start attacking land-based targets.

Although the government has not officially revealed which agency was behind the dock attack, US media widely reported that the attack was carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).