Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The move comes amid an escalating campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro that has included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed dozens of people.

Last week, US forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast that was travelling across the Caribbean. The tanker was thought to be loaded with about 2 million barrels of Venezuela’s heavy crude, according to the New York Times. The Venezuelan government accused the US of “blatant theft” and described the seizure as “an act of international piracy”, further heightening tensions between the two countries.

In a post on social media on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, night announcing the blockade, Trump claimed Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.

 “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before … today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”

It is unclear how the Trump administration will impose the blockade against the sanctioned vessels, and whether he will turn to the Coast Guard to interdict vessels like he did last week. The administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships – including an aircraft carrier – to the region recently.

Maduro, speaking at an event on Tuesday evening before Trump’s visit, said: “Imperialism and the fascist right want to colonise Venezuela to take over its wealth of oil, gas, gold, among other minerals. We have sworn absolutely to defend our homeland, and in Venezuela, peace will triumph.”

Venezuela’s government said it rejected Trump’s order of a blockade as a “grotesque threat”, Reuters reported.

Texas congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, called the blockade “unquestionably an act of war”.

“A war that the Congress never authorised and the American people do not want,” Castro said on social media.

Oil market participants said prices were rising in anticipation of a potential reduction in Venezuelan exports, although they were still waiting to see how Trump’s blockade would be enforced and whether it would extend to include non-sanctioned vessels.

There has been an effective embargo in place after the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.

Since the seizure, Venezuelan crude exports have fallen sharply, a situation worsened by a cyberattack that knocked down the administrative systems of PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, this week.