US sanctions four traders it says are shipping Venezuelan oil

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The US has imposed sanctions on four oil traders operating in Venezuela, as Donald Trump ratchets up pressure on Venezuela’s strongman leader Nicolás Maduro.

The US Treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday said it was sanctioning the companies for their involvement in Venezuela’s oil sector, a crucial lifeblood for the government in Caracas.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “President Trump has been clear: we will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while it floods the United States with deadly drugs.”

Bessent said the department would continue to implement Trump’s “campaign of pressure” on Maduro, who Washington has said is the head of a drug-trafficking organisation that exports narcotics to the US.

The Treasury identified the blocked oil tankers as Nord Star, Rosalind, Della and Valiant, and said it was sanctioning the ships’ owners and operators: Aries Global Investment, Corniola, Krape Myrtle and Winky International.

The US state department said: “The Trump administration is committed to disrupting the network that props up Maduro and his illegitimate regime.”

The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wednesday’s announcement marked the White House’s latest economic salvo at the Maduro regime. The US Coast Guard has also seized or attempted to board at least three sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean in recent weeks.

Venezuela’s oil exports had risen in recent months. The country, home to the world’s largest oil deposit, ships crude to China and Cuba.

Washington has in recent weeks unveiled sanctions intended to squeeze Maduro’s regime, and Trump earlier this month declared a “total blockade” on US-sanctioned oil tankers heading to and from Venezuela.

The US president has not ruled out a military ground operation in Venezuela as part of his campaign to disable the country’s alleged drugs-exporting operations and push Maduro to step down.

The efforts to choke off Venezuela’s oil sector come as the US has built up a major naval presence in the Caribbean and launched a campaign of lethal strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs from South America to the US.

Maduro, who Washington has designated as the head of a “foreign terrorist” drug cartel, has described the US naval build-up in the Caribbean as a pretext for his ousting.

Trump on Monday said the US had carried out an attack on a “dock area” in Venezuela, but did not say whether the US military or the CIA had carried out the strike.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday. “We hit all the boats and now we hit . . . the implementation area. That is where they implement, and that is no longer around.”

Maduro on Tuesday said Trump was lying about the cause of the explosion.

“In the United States, they spread fake news and wage war against a noble country like Venezuela,” he said. “Everything they say is a lie.”

Additional reporting by Joe Daniels in Rio de Janeiro