Maduro Venezuela: Trump says he's not spoke to Venezuelan President since last month - as US seizes oil tanker
The US says it has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi says the tanker has been sanctioned for many years due to its "involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations" She posted a clip on social media which appears to show US troops boarding the vessel via helicopter.
"We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large one... the largest one ever seized actually", US President Donald Trump told reporters at a White House event. Asked what will happen to the oil on the seized tanker, Trump says: "Well, we keep it, I guess."
"I assume we're going to keep the oil," he later adds. Venezuela has some of the world's largest proven oil deposits and its president, Nicolás Maduro, has previously accused the US of trying to get its hands on the country's reserves.
Asked whether by a reporter if the US will keep the oil on the tanker, Trump tells the reporter: "Follow the tanker." He also said he has not spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro since their phone call last month.
Trump added that the tanker “was seized for a very good reason”, without offering further detail. Venezuela's government has responded by accusing the US of "theft" and "international piracy", and has previously said it believes the US is actually trying to depose its President Nicolás Maduro.
Over the past few months, Trump has been ramping up pressure on Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. Reducing immigration has been a priority for Trump, and he blames Maduro for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants into the US.
Trump has also designated two Venezuelan criminal groups - Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles - as Foreign Terrorist Organisations and has alleged that the latter is led by Maduro himself. Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its "war on drugs" as an excuse to try and depose him and get its hands on Venezuela's vast reserves of oil.