WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is gathering with top national security officials on Monday, a meeting that comes as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration's escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan are scheduled to join Trump, who is vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort, for what the White House called a "major announcement." Trump plans to discuss a shipbuilding initiative at the event, according to a White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
But Trump's gathering of key members of his national security team also comes at yet another inflection point in Trump's four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has started 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 the evacuations include women and children and began on Friday. The official said Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in “very grim tones.” The White House and Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In the Caribbean, the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued for the second day to chase a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” Venezuela is using to evade U.S. sanctions. The tanker, the official added, is flying under a false flag and is under a U.S. judicial seizure order.
It is the third ship pursued by the Coast Guard, which on Saturday seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries that U.S. officials said was part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet.
The Coast Guard, with assistance from the Navy, seized a sanctioned tanker called Skipper on Dec. 10, also part of the shadow fleet of tankers that the U.S. says operates on the fringes of the law to move sanctioned cargo. That ship was registered in Panama.
Trump, after that first seizure, said the U.S. would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that Maduro's days in power are numbered.
Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew 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 in a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the targeting of tankers is intended to send “a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people.”
Meanwhile, the Defense Department, under Trump's orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying 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 scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
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Burrows reported from London.
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