The US has issued new sanctions targeting Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro’s family, oil tankers and shipping companies, as Washington ramps up pressure on Caracas.
The measures target three of the president’s wife’s nephews as well as six crude oil tankers and six shipping companies linked to them .
The action came as the US continues its large-scale military build-up in the southern Caribbean and as US President Donald Trump campaigns for Maduro‘s removal from power.
Trump warned on Thursday that the US would soon begin land strikes in Venezuela to stop narcotics shipments travelling via land routes.
So-called ‘narco nephews’ targeted
Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, have both been hit with sanctions.
The two were dubbed the “narco nephews” after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 in a US drug enforcement administration sting operation.
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They were convicted in 2016 on charges that they tried to carry out a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but were released in a 2022 prisoner swap with Venezuela.
A third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, who the US says was involved in a corruption plot at the state oil company, is also sanctioned.
US strikes on alleged drug boats
The US has already been carrying out legally contested strikes against what it claims were boats transporting drugs.
On Wednesday, Trump said the US had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela – with the White House later confirming the ship will be taken to a US port.
The oil on board will also be seized by the US, according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
The US treasury department, said it had now imposed sanctions on six shipping companies moving Venezuelan oil, as well as six crude oil tankers.
It described the tankers as having “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices” and said they continued to “provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.
Four of the tankers are Panama-flagged. The other two are registered in the Cook Islands, and Hong Kong, respectively.
The targeted vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude oil in Venezuela, according to state oil company PDVSA’s internal shipping documents.
The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles press inquiries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maduro and his government have vehemently denied links to crime and say that the US is pursuing regime change in order to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
In a visit to the Pinto Salinas neighbourhood, Maduro claimed: “The imperialists thought that our people would falter, but here no one faltered, and no one will ever falter.”
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David Goldwyn, a former energy diplomat at the US state department said the sanctions on the six vessels could lay the groundwork for the US to try and seize them.
“This is a powerful intimidation tactic. Certainly, any sanctioned vessel owner will think twice about lifting Venezuelan crude for fear of losing the vessel entirely.
“And those that are not sanctioned will certainly be concerned about being boarded or designated going forward,” Goldwyn said.
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Francisco Monaldi, from Rice University’s Baker Institute, said the impact of the seizure and further sanctions would depend on US enforcement.
But he said that the risks were now higher for ships departing from Venezuelan waters, especially for shadow fleet and sanctioned vessels.
He added that that would at least “force wider price discounts for Venezuela’s oil or more flexible terms by PDVSA not to lose customers and could hit export volumes too”.
