The U.S. on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) 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 serving Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, as blocked property.

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

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 last week at a docking area believed to have been used by drug cartels.

The latest sanctions from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control target ships called Nord Star, Lunar Tide, Rosalind and Della, and their registered ownership companies.

“Today’s sanctions continue President Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro and his cronies,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “The Trump Administration is committed to disrupting the network that props up Maduro and his illegitimate regime.” 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.

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

“The Treasury Department will continue to implement President Trump’s campaign of pressure on Maduro’s regime,” Mr. Bessent said.

A U.S. warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday (October 26, 2025) for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ratcheted up pressure on drug traffickers and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

The U.S.S. Gravely, whose upcoming arrival was announced Thursday (October 23) by the Trinidadian government, docked in the capital, Port of Spain.

It is set to remain in the small Caribbean nation until Thursday,(October 30) during which time a contingent of U.S. Marines will conduct joint training with local defense forces.

The exercises are part of a mounting military campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump against drug-trafficking organizations in Latin America, which has targeted Trump’s arch-foe Maduro in particular.

U.S. forces have blown up at least 10 boats they claimed were smuggling narcotics, killing at least 43 people, and Mr. Trump has also threatened ground attacks on suspected cartels in Venezuela.

Mr. Maduro, a longtime Mr. Trump foe whose re-election last year was widely rejected as fraudulent, has accused the United States of “fabricating a war” aimed at toppling him.

The standoff escalated sharply on Friday (October 24), when the Pentagon ordered the deployment of the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R Ford, to the region.

Mr. Trump has also authorised CIA operations against Venezuela.

The standoff has pulled in Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, a sharp critic of the American strikes who was sanctioned by Washington on Friday (October 24) for allegedly allowing drug trafficking to flourish.

Washington has accused both Mr. Maduro and Mr. Petro of being “narcoterrorists,” without providing any proof of the allegations.

In August, Washington deployed a fleet of eight U.S. Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region for anti-drug operations — the biggest military build-up in the area since the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.

‘Getting a lash’

In Trinidad and Tobago, a laidback twin-island nation of 1.4 million people, some welcomed their government’s show of support for the U.S. campaign but others worried about getting caught up in a conflict between Washington and Caracas.

“If anything should happen with Venezuela and America, we as people who live on the outskirts of it … could end up getting a lash any time,” 64-year-old Daniel Holder, a Rastafarian who wore a white turban, told AFP.

“I am against my country being part of this,” he added.

Victor Rojas, a 38-year-old carpenter who has been living in Trinidad and Tobago for the past eight years, said he was worried for his family back home.

“Venezuela is not in a position to weather an attack right now,” he said, referring to the country’s economic collapse under Maduro.

Trinidad and Tobago, which acts as a hub in the Caribbean drug trade, has itself been caught up in the US campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats.

Two Trinidadian men were killed in a strike on a vessel that set out from Venezuela in mid-October, according to their families.

The mother of one of the victims insisted he was a fisherman, not a drug trafficker.

Local authorities have not yet confirmed their deaths.