Trump warns Venezuela’s Maduro against ‘tough’ behavior as US Coast Guard pursues another oil tanker

US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday as the US Coast Guard steps up efforts to seize oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea, part of the Republican administration’s growing pressure campaign on the government in Caracas.

Trump was surrounded by his top national security aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested he remained ready to further intensify his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated goal of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has morphed into something more amorphous.

“If he wants to do something, if he plays hard, this will be the last time he can play hard,” Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from his Florida vacation to announce plans for the Navy to build a large new warship.

Trump made his latest threat as the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday pursued for a second day a sanctioned tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” that Venezuela is using to evade U.S. sanctions. The tanker, according to the White House, is flying under a false flag and is the subject of a US judicial seizure order.

“It’s moving forward and we’ll get there eventually,” Trump said.

It is the third tanker pursued by the US Coast Guard, which on Saturday seized a Panamanian-flagged vessel, the Centuries, which US authorities say was part of the Venezuelan ghost fleet.

The Coast Guard, with help from the Navy, on Dec. 10 seized a sanctioned Panama-registered tanker called Skipper, also part of the ghost fleet of tankers that the United States says operates outside the law to move sanctioned goods.

Trump, after this first seizure, declared that the United States would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said Maduro’s days in power are numbered.

Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets it seized years ago from U.S. oil companies, once again justifying his announcement of a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said Monday during an appearance on Fox and friends that the targeting of oil tankers is intended to send “a message to the whole world that the illegal activity Maduro is participating in cannot continue, it must go, and that we will defend our people.”

Later on Monday, Trump said Washington would keep or possibly sell the oil it had seized off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, adding that the United States would also keep the seized ships.

Tanker traffic decreases

Meanwhile, oil tanker loading in Venezuela declined on Monday, with most ships carrying oil cargoes only between domestic ports. An oil tanker believed to be part of the ghost fleet was seen moving between Venezuelan refineries, including one about three hours west of the capital, Caracas.

The tanker remained at the El Palito refinery until Sunday, when families headed to the town beach to relax with their children on a school break. Music played over speakers while people swam and surfed with the tanker in the background.

Families and groups of teenagers had a great time, but Manuel Salazar, who has parked his cars on the beach for more than three decades, noticed differences from years past, when the country’s oil-dependent economy was in better shape and the energy industry was producing at least double today’s million barrels per day.

“Up to nine or ten tankers were waiting in the bay. One was leaving, another was arriving,” Salazar, 68, said. “Now look, one.”

The El Palito tanker was identified by Transparencia Venezuela, an independent watchdog promoting government accountability, as part of the ghost fleet.

Venezuela’s ruling party controlled The National Assembly on Monday gave initial approval to a measure that would criminalize a wide range of activities that could be linked to the seizure of oil tankers.

Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello, who introduced the bill, said anyone could be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years for encouraging, requesting, supporting, financing or participating in “acts of piracy, blockades or other international illegal acts against” commercial entities operating with the South American country.

Russian diplomats evacuate families from Caracas

The Russian Foreign Ministry has begun evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, according to a European intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The official told The Associated Press that the evacuations included women and children and began Friday, adding that Russian Foreign Ministry officials were assessing the situation in Venezuela in a “very grim” tone. The ministry said in a post on X that it was not evacuating the embassy, ​​but did not respond to questions about whether it was evacuating diplomats’ families.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Monday he spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who he said expressed Russia’s support for Venezuela against Trump’s declared blockade of sanctioned oil tankers.

“We have reviewed the aggressions and flagrant violations of international law that have been committed in the Caribbean: attacks on ships and extrajudicial killings, as well as illegal acts of piracy perpetrated by the United States government,” Gil said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Defense, under Trump’s orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller ships in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it says are transporting drugs to the United States and beyond.

At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced intense scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has provided little evidence that its targets are indeed drug traffickers, and suggest the deadly strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.