White House officials revealed Tuesday that the Trump administration is “likely” to engage in what critics have called acts of “piracy and maritime terrorism” — and “soon,” The New York Times reported.
According to multiple White House officials who spoke with the Times on the condition of anonymity, the Trump administration will “likely” seize more Venezuelan oil tankers following the administration’s seizure of the Venezuelan oil tanker “Skipper” last week in the Caribbean, an act that Venezuela condemned as an “act of international piracy.”
The revelation comes amid the Trump administration’s aggressive escalation of military threats against Venezuela, starting with its deadly strikes in September on suspected drug-carrying vessels that have killed at least 95 people, and have been condemned by critics as unlawful.
Trump has also considered assassinating Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to reports, has illegally closed the South American nation’s airspace, deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to its coast, and revealed that land operations against the nation would begin “very soon.”
The Trump administration has justified its military threats toward Venezuela under the guise of combating drug trafficking, though various comments from Trump officials and GOP lawmakers suggest that the nation’s oil reserves — the single-largest in the world — are the true motivation for the administration’s escalations.
And, according to the Times, Trump himself has admitted privately that helping American companies gain access to Venezuela’s oil reserves is indeed a “goal” of his administration’s aggressive escalations with the South American nation.
“Mr. Trump has not spoken publicly about helping American companies get a bigger share of Venezuela’s oil as a goal of that campaign,” reads the Times’ report. “But he has often mentioned it privately, said people familiar with the conversations.”
The Trump administration’s apparent goal of toppling Venezuela’s government at the behest of American oil companies bears striking similarities to a previous U.S.-backed coup in Chile when, in 1973, Democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende was overthrown at the behest of American mining and communications companies to gain unfettered access to Chile’s labor and natural resources.