The U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker this week after months of maintaining that ongoing military operations in the Caribbean were focused on fighting drug trafficking.

Russia and Venezuela has condemned the United States for it seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker this week. Follow Newsweek live.

Venezuela is bracing for a possible land attack after President Donald Trump said, “It’s going to be starting on land pretty soon,” following the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker.

Trump is continuing to ratchet up pressure on Venezuela, after US military forces seized an oil tanker off the country's coast. What to know.

The Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic twists yet in a military pressure campaign against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The favourite in Chile's election on Sunday is the right-wing José Antonio Kast. A Kast victory would be the latest rightward political shift in South America, as U.S. President Donald Trump and the White House try to coax or force the socialist leader of Venezuela from office.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro says escalating pressure from the US comes down to one thing: Washington wants to grab the South American nation's vast oil reserves.

Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister denounced the seizure, calling it a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”

Now, President Donald Trump wants Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power. Maduro’s “days are numbered,” Trump told Politico in an interview released on Dec. 9. His Administration considers Maduro the head of a government-sponsored cocaine smuggling syndicate.

The tanker was headed eastward and had recently carried Iranian oil. The seizure is an escalation in President Trump’s military pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Trump admin weighs next steps in Venezuela as military presence ramps up