WASHINGTON, December 24. /TASS/. The Washington administration intends to maintain a naval blockade of Venezuela for at least two months, preventing the passage of oil tankers to and from this country, Reuters news agency reported citing an American official.
"While military options still exist, the focus is to first use economic pressure by enforcing sanctions to reach the outcome the White House is looking," the US official said.
According to the official, the White House has ordered American forces in the region to focus almost exclusively "on the quarantine of Venezuelan oil for at least the next two months."
"The efforts so far have put tremendous pressure on [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro and the belief is that by late January Venezuela will be facing an economic calamity unless it agrees to make significant concessions to the U.S.," the official said.
Washington unfairly accuses Caracas of not actively fighting drug smuggling. The New York Times reported in August that US President Donald Trump signed a closed directive on the use of military force against Latin American drug cartels. After that significant additional American forces were deployed to the Caribbean, including a strike group of ships led by aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford. In recent months, the US military has destroyed more than 20 boats off the coast of Latin America under the pretext of combating drug smuggling, killing almost 100 people. After one of these strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the American operation had killed a fisherman from his country, not a drug dealer.
On December 10, Trump said the US detained an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil, which was under sanctions, adding the United States plans to keep it. On December 16, he ordered blocking of all sanctioned tankers bound for and from Venezuela. The American leader said that the United States considers the Venezuelan government to be a "foreign terrorist organization."
The United States intercepted the Centuries tanker, which saileding under the flag of Panama with cargo for an oil trader from China supplying fuel to Chinese refineries although the vessel is not under American sanctions. On December 21, Bloomberg reported that US forces were detaining the Bella 1 tanker en route to Venezuela under the Panamanian flag.