The Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic twists yet in a military pressure campaign against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

An American special forces veteran led the operation to get María Corina Machado out of Venezuela: "The first Nobel Prize winner that we've ever rescued."

Vladimir Putin calls Nicolás Maduro to pledge Russian support as U.S. pressure on Venezuela intensifies following massive oil tanker seizure and Caribbean military buildup.

Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister denounced the seizure, calling it a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”

Now, President Donald Trump wants Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power. Maduro’s “days are numbered,” Trump told Politico in an interview released on Dec. 9. His Administration considers Maduro the head of a government-sponsored cocaine smuggling syndicate.

The escalation targeting President Nicolás Maduro revives a Cold War playbook that had severe and lasting consequences for Latin American democracies and economies.

We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.” Now, as the first year of his second term draws to a close, President Trump is mobilizing for war against … Venezuela? The buildup to a possible conflict with Venezuela,

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has commented on the latest escalation in tensions between America and Venezuela after the US seized an oil tanker, which is alleged to have been heading to Iran.