Rubio says U.S. military 'quarantine' of Venezuela will remain and troops could deploy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is keeping a military "quarantine" around Venezuela to prevent oil tankers on a U.S. sanctions list from entering and leaving the country, and that U.S. troops could be put on the ground if it served American interests. He made the comments in an interview on CBS News’s "Face the Nation." Mr.

Rubio said the large U.S. naval force massed in the Caribbean Sea would remain to enforce the quasi-blockade and to "paralyze that portion of how the regime... generates revenue." He framed the measure as leverage to push for changes by Venezuela’s new leadership, noting that Nicolás Maduro is in detention in New York City with his wife, Cilia Flores, and that the administration has focused on seizing Venezuelan oil wealth.

The United States recently boarded two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil to Asia: the Skipper, which was on a Treasury Department sanctions list and subject to a Justice Department seizure warrant, and the Centuries, which was not on the sanctions list. U.S. authorities have for days pursued another sanctioned tanker, the Bella 1, which changed its flag to Russia and renamed itself the Marinera; the Russian foreign ministry formally told the U.S.

government on Dec. 31 to stop chasing the vessel. Chevron has been the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela through joint ventures with state-owned PDVSA under a license granted as an exception to sanctions. Mr.

Key Topics

World, Marco Rubio, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez, Pdvsa