Venezuela accuses US of ‘extortion’ in seizing oil tanker

Venezuela accused the United States of “maximum blackmail” at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations said Washington’s seizure of two Venezuelan oil tankers was “more serious than piracy.”

The Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month.

The United States also said it was pursuing a third Venezuelan oil tanker.

President Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading drug cartels and said criminal gangs have operated with impunity for too long.

On December 16, Trump ordered a naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. The U.S. president said the United States would keep or sell the crude oil from the tankers it seized, as well as the tankers themselves.

The United States has deployed 15,000 troops and a series of aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean.

The deployment, the largest in the region since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, was explicitly aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl and cocaine into the United States.

The United States has also attacked more than 20 ships in the Pacific and Caribbean in recent months, killing at least 100 people, as part of President Trump’s crackdown on gangs he accuses of transporting drugs in the region.

Some experts said the attack could violate laws governing armed conflict.

Venezuela’s envoy to the United Nations said the United States is subjecting Venezuela to the “worst extortion” in its history.

“We are faced with a power that violates international law and is asking Venezuelans to evacuate our country and hand it over,” Samuel Moncada told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

Regarding the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan oil, he added: “We are talking about the plunder, plunder and recolonization of Venezuela.

“The United States government has no jurisdiction over the Caribbean.”

Referring to Venezuela’s oil industry, he said: “What does this have to do with drugs?”

In response, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Walz told the Security Council that the United States does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

“Maduro’s ability to sell Venezuelan oil allowed him to fraudulently seize power and carry out a campaign of narco-terrorism,” Walz said.

“The Security Council is providing overwhelming support to Venezuela,” President Maduro said during a visit to a trade fair in Caracas.

Russia and China accuse the United States of bullying and aggression.

Vasily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told a U.N. meeting that the United States “illegally destroyed” civilian ships in the Caribbean.

He warned that other countries could be next.

He said the U.S. action against Venezuelan ships was “a template for future military actions against Latin American countries.”

At the same time, China’s special envoy to the United Nations, Sun Lei, called on the United States to “immediately stop relevant actions to avoid further escalation of tensions.”