Donald Trump and his top advisers have refused to rule out open conflict with Venezuela as Nicolás Maduro ordered his navy to escort oil tankers defying the largest US fleet deployment in the region in decades.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said war with Maduro’s regime remained on the table, while secretary of state Marco Rubio echoed other advisers in asserting that the United States could use every element of national power, including strikes on alleged drug-running vessels, to coerce Caracas.
The recent seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker has disrupted Venezuela’s so-called dark fleet, with industry data showing many of more than 30 sanctioned tankers fleeing to the Indian Ocean or manipulating their locations to evade US interdiction.
Earlier this week a senior US official claimed that Venezuela’s oil reserves belong to the US, citing previous ownership of oil exploration businesses by American companies.
Rubio said the current status quo with Venezuela was intolerable for Washington and confirmed that the goal was to change the dynamic, as experts argued that the blockade is starving Maduro’s government of oil revenues and increasing the likelihood of a direct US effort to unseat him.
Analysts say the campaign has transformed a counter-drug operation into a broader strategy aimed at cutting off the regime’s financial lifelines, which the United States links to alleged narco-trafficking networks. Trump has declined to state whether regime change is the ultimate objective, despite an escalating four-month military buildup involving about 15,000 troops and attacks on vessels that have killed more than 100 people, even as his chief of staff said he wants to keep escalating pressure until Maduro relents.
Maduro has denounced tanker seizures as piracy, accused regional governments of complicity, and faced mounting pressure from US officials and aides who argue his government is illegitimate and tied to Iran, Hezbollah, and criminal organisations.
The US navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima is seen docked in Ponce, Puerto Rico, amid a military buildup in the Caribbean, on Wednesday. Photograph: Eva Marie Uzcategui
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