CARACAS \u2014 President Donald Trump has ordered a \u201ctotal and complete\u201d blockade of oil tankers around Venezuela, sparking fury in Caracas and warnings of war from U.S. lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump boasted on Truth Social that Venezuela was \u201ccompletely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.\u201d He promised it would \u201conly get bigger\u201d and accused Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government of using \u201cstolen oil\u201d to fund drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The move comes days after U.S. forces seized a tanker, the Skipper<\/em>, off Venezuela\u2019s coast. Maduro blasted the raid, saying Washington \u201ckidnapped the crew\u201d and \u201cstole\u201d the ship. Caracas denounced the blockade as \u201cwarmongering threats\u201d<\/em>, accusing the U.S. of trying to plunder the country\u2019s vast oil reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of U.S. troops and the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier have already been deployed to the Caribbean, putting Venezuela under the shadow of American firepower. Since September, U.S. strikes on alleged drug\u2011smuggling boats have killed at least 90 people \u2014 though officials have offered no public proof the vessels carried fentanyl or cocaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maduro\u2019s government branded Trump\u2019s order \u201can act of piracy dressed up as policy,\u201d vowing Venezuela would resist. State media called the blockade \u201cirrational\u201d and warned it could strangle the country\u2019s already battered economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Washington, Congressman Joaquin Castro (D\u2011Texas) fired back, saying the blockade is \u201cunquestionably an act of war.\u201d He pledged Congress would vote to rein in Trump\u2019s hostilities. Other critics warned Trump was dragging America into a dangerous conflict in South America without evidence or congressional approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s allies, however, cheered the move, framing it as tough action against Maduro\u2019s \u201cnarco\u2011terrorist regime.\u201d They argued the blockade would choke off illicit oil shipments and weaken Venezuela\u2019s grip on power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International voices added to the chorus. UN human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk cautioned that Venezuela\u2019s crackdown on civic space has \u201cintensified, suffocating freedoms,\u201d and warned the blockade could worsen humanitarian suffering. Analysts noted oil prices briefly spiked as traders feared disruption in Caribbean shipping lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, Venezuela is ringed by warships, Trump is doubling down, and the oil\u2011rich nation is bracing for what could be its most dangerous standoff yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CARACAS \u2014 President Donald Trump has ordered a \u201ctotal and complete\u201d blockade of oil tankers around Venezuela, sparking fury in Caracas and warnings of war from U.S. lawmakers. Trump boasted on Truth Social that Venezuela was \u201ccompletely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.\u201d He promised it would \u201conly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":24932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,1138],"tags":[2162,2165,2091,2163,42,2166,2164,2161],"class_list":["post-24918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-politics","tag-blockade","tag-internationalrelations","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-oilcrisis","tag-trump","tag-un-human-rights","tag-uspolitics","tag-venezuela"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Donald-Trump.webp?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24934,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24918\/revisions\/24934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}