Trump Designates Venezuelan Regime as "Terrorist Organization"... Tightens Financial Pressure

Blockade Measures on Sanctioned Oil Tankers

Donald Trump, President of the United States (left), and Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

US President Donald Trump announced on the 16th (local time) that he would designate the Venezuelan regime as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" (FTO) and impose a complete blockade on the entry and exit of sanctioned oil tankers. With this move, the Trump administration aims to intensify its all-out pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.

On this day, President Trump stated on the social networking service Truth Social, "Venezuela is now completely surrounded by the largest fleet in South American history. The scale will only grow, and the shock they will experience will be unlike anything they have faced before." He added that this would continue until Venezuela returns all the oil, land, and assets that it had stolen from the United States.

Targeting President Maduro, Trump said, "The illegal Maduro regime is using oil stolen from seized oil fields to fund regime maintenance, narco-terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping." He continued, "In addition to the theft of our assets, due to terrorism, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and many other reasons, the Venezuelan regime has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization."

The level of economic sanctions will also be raised. He declared, "Therefore, today I am ordering a comprehensive and total blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela."

Although the blockade was initially defined as targeting "sanctioned oil tankers," it is expected that very few foreign oil tankers will attempt to transport Venezuelan crude oil under such strong US pressure. As a result, this measure is effectively equivalent to blocking all oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

President Trump further emphasized, "The United States will not allow criminals, terrorists, or other countries to plunder, threaten, or harm our nation, nor will we tolerate hostile regimes seizing our oil, land, or any other assets." He reiterated, "All of these must be returned to the United States immediately."