Trump Warns Maduro on Playing 'Tough'  12/23 06:08

   President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a new warning to Venezuelan 
President Nicols Maduro 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 the government in Caracas.

   WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a 
new warning to Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro 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 the government in 
Caracas.

   Trump was surrounded by his top national security aides, Secretary of State 
Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested that he remains 
ready to further escalate his 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.

   "If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it'll be the last time 
he'll ever be able to play tough," Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from 
his Florida holiday vacation to announce plans for the Navy to build a new, 
large warship.

   Trump levied his latest threat as the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued 
for a 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, according to the White House, is flying under a false flag and is 
under a U.S. judicial seizure order.

   "It's moving along and we'll end up getting it," Trump said.

   It is the third tanker 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."

   Russian diplomats evacuate families from Caracas

   Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Ministry 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, adding that Russian Foreign Ministry officials 
are assessing the situation in Venezuela in "very grim tones." The ministry 
said in an X posting that it was not evacuating the embassy but did not address 
queries about whether it was evacuating the families of diplomats.

   Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yvn Gil on Monday said he spoke by phone with 
his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, who he said expressed Russia's support 
for Venezuela against Trump's declared blockade of sanctioned oil tankers.

   "We reviewed the aggressions and flagrant violations of international law 
that have been committed in the Caribbean: attacks against vessels and 
extrajudicial executions, and the unlawful acts of piracy carried out by the 
United States government," Gil said in a statement.

   The scene on a Venezuelan beach near a refinery

   While U.S. forces targeted the vessels in international waters over the 
weekend, a tanker that's considered part of the shadow fleet was spotted moving 
between Venezuelan refineries, including one about three hours west of the 
capital, Caracas.

   The tanker remained at the refinery in El Palito through Sunday, when 
families went to the town's beach to relax with children now on break from 
school.

   Music played on loudspeakers as people swam and surfed with the tanker in 
the background. Families and groups of teenagers enjoyed themselves, but Manuel 
Salazar, who has parked cars at the beach for more than three decades, noticed 
differences from years past, when the country's oil-dependent economy was in 
better shape and the energy industry produced at least double the current 1 
million barrels per day.

   "Up to nine or 10 tankers would wait out there in the bay. One would leave, 
another would come in," Salazar, 68, said. "Now, look, one."

   The tanker in El Palito has been identified by Transparencia Venezuela, an 
independent watchdog promoting government accountability, to be part of the 
shadow fleet.

   Area residents on Sunday recalled when tankers would sound their horns at 
midnight New Year's Eve, while some would even send up fireworks to celebrate 
the holiday.

   "Before, during vacations, they'd have barbecues; now all you see is bread 
with bologna," Salazar said of Venezuelan families spending the holiday at the 
beach next to the refinery. "Things are expensive. Food prices keep going up 
and up every day."

   Venezuela's ruling party-controlled National Assembly on Monday gave initial 
approval to a measure that would criminalize a broad range of activities that 
could be linked to the seizure of oil tankers.

   Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello, who introduced the bill, said people could 
be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years for promoting, requesting, 
supporting, financing or participating in "acts of piracy, blockades or other 
international illegal acts against" commercial entities operating with the 
South American country.

   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 105 people have been killed in 29 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.