Washington | The seizure of an enormous oil supertanker off the coast of Venezuela this week is just the beginning of a new phase in the Trump administration’s ramped-up pressure campaign against Nicolas Maduro, according to people familiar with the operation.
The act of economic statecraft – which saw US forces descend on ropes from a Black Hawk helicopter onto the deck of a sanctioned very-large crude carrier called Skipper – is designed to deny Maduro a lifeline of oil revenue and force him to relinquish power, the people said.
