{"id":380738,"date":"2026-01-01T00:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380738\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T00:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T00:41:11","slug":"us-imposes-sanctions-on-4-venezuelan-oil-firms-and-4-more-tankers-in-maduro-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380738\/","title":{"rendered":"US imposes sanctions on 4 Venezuelan oil firms and 4 more tankers in Maduro crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four firms operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and designated four additional oil tankers, which the U.S. accuses of being part of a shadow fleet<\/a> serving Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government, as blocked property. <\/p>\n

The action is part of the Trump administration\u2019s monthslong pressure campaign<\/a> on Maduro. U.S. forces also have seized two oil tankers<\/a> off Venezuela’s coast, are pursuing another<\/a> and have conducted a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats<\/a> in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n

A set of strikes announced Wednesday increased the death toll from the attacks to at least 110 people since early September. And in a new escalation marking the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil, the CIA carried out a drone strike<\/a> last week at a docking area believed to have been used by drug cartels.<\/p>\n

The latest sanctions from the Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control target ships called Nord Star, Lunar Tide, Rosalind and Della, and their registered ownership companies. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s sanctions continue President Trump\u2019s pressure campaign on Maduro and his cronies,\u201d State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. \u201cThe Trump Administration is committed to disrupting the network that props up Maduro and his illegitimate regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctions are meant to deny the firms and tankers access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S. People, banks and financial institutions that violate that restriction expose themselves to sanctions or enforcement actions.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States “will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while it floods the United States with deadly drugs.\u201d <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has announced a \u201cblockade\u201d of all sanctioned oil tankers<\/a> coming in and out of the South American country. He has demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized<\/a> from U.S. oil companies years ago and has said Maduro’s government is using oil profits to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Treasury Department will continue to implement President Trump\u2019s campaign of pressure on Maduro\u2019s regime,” Bessent said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four firms operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and designated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[185937,23,966,28,3321,793,3,111,3776,21,19,22,20,25,24,800,965],"class_list":["post-380738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-185937","tag-america","tag-article","tag-business","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}