United States President Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all US-sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday evening.
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“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said.
“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” he said.
The Venezuelan government issued a statement in response to the announced blockade, saying it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat”.
“The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our homeland,” the government said.
Earlier, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that “the world will rise up against piracy and oil plunder” over the US administration’s “theft” last week of a tanker vessel carrying Venezuelan crude oil, the Agencia Venezuela News site reported.
US forces seized the Skipper oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and were reported to have brought the vessel to the US state of Texas to unload its oil cargo.
US Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing Texas, said Trump’s blockade was “unquestionably an act of war”.
“A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,” Castro said in a post on social media.
Castro added that US lawmakers will have an opportunity on Thursday to vote on a resolution “directing the President to end hostilities with Venezuela”.
“Every member of the House of Representatives will have the opportunity to decide if they support sending Americans into yet another regime change war,” Castro said.
A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war.
A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want.
On Thursday, the House will vote on @RepMcGovern, @RepThomasMassie, and my resolution directing the President to end hostilities with Venezuela.… https://t.co/9wp2iiZuYk
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) December 17, 2025
Venezuela turns to UNSC for help
Trump’s blockade comes amid a huge buildup of US military forces off the Venezuelan coast, in an operation said to target drug smuggling.
The US military has killed at least 90 people since September in attacks on dozens of vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, in what international law experts have criticised as extrajudicial killings.
Washington claimed the vessels were involved in drug trafficking, but has provided no evidence to support its allegations.
Officials in Caracas have said for months that the deployment of US forces to the region was aimed at allowing “external powers to rob Venezuela’s immeasurable oil and gas wealth” and US claims of tackling drug trafficking was a pretext to justify regime change.
The South American country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Venezuela’s United Nations representative, Samuel Moncada, delivered a letter to the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday, “formally denouncing” the US seizure of Venezuela’s Skipper oil tanker last week and the “kidnapping” of its crew.
“This is an act of state piracy carried out through the use of military force, which constitutes a blatant theft of assets that do not belong to the United States of America, but are part of the legitimate international trade of a member state of the United Nations,” the letter stated.
The Reuters news agency has reported that only tankers chartered by US oil giant Chevron had left Venezuela’s ports and sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude since the seizure of the Skipper. Chevron has US government authorisation to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA, and can export its oil to the US, Reuters reported.
Strict US sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports, imposed during Trump’s first administration and tightened at the beginning of his second term, have added to the country’s dire economic struggles.
Earlier this month, a US court also ordered the forced sale of Venezuelan oil company Citgo in the US to pay off billions of dollars in debts.
