The US focuses on increasing economic pressure on Venezuela.
Al Jazeera news network, citing a Reuters report, added that the US will focus more on economic pressure on Venezuela than military pressure, an unnamed US official said.
The Reuters report said that the White House has ordered the country’s military to focus almost exclusively on enforcing the “quarantine” of Venezuelan oil, despite the continued US military pressure in the region.
While the military option remains in place, the focus is now primarily on using economic pressure by enforcing sanctions to achieve the goal the White House is seeking, the US official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Tensions in the Caribbean escalated last month as US President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 15,000 troops, an aircraft carrier, guided missile destroyers and amphibious assault ships.
This is the largest US troop presence in the Caribbean in decades and has raised concerns that Trump is ordering an attack on Venezuela under the pretext of protecting the US from international drug cartels and smugglers.
According to Reuters, Trump ordered a “complete and total blockade” of all oil tankers under US sanctions entering or leaving Venezuelan waters in mid-December. US forces have so far seized two oil tankers and are pursuing a third.
Despite US sanctions against Caracas since 2005, oil has remained Venezuela’s mainstay. Sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector were tightened in 2019 during the first year of the Trump administration.
Despite the ongoing tensions, some media outlets have argued that targeting Venezuelan oil could be a way to de-escalate tensions, as enforcement actions are being carried out by the Coast Guard, not the military.
The Coast Guard is a civilian peacetime agency and is considered a branch of the U.S. police force. The Coast Guard has the right to board ships under U.S. sanctions to conduct inspections. However, the naval blockade of Venezuela could be considered an act of war.
This week, Venezuela described the tanker seizures as “worse than piracy” in a statement to the United Nations Security Council.
Since September, U.S. forces have carried out airstrikes on dozens of ships traveling in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic. The White House says the ships were carrying illegal drugs.
The strikes, ordered by Trump and without congressional authorization, have killed at least 105 people in what the White House has called a “non-international armed conflict.”
The White House says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro supports major gangs that are on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.