US intercepts second merchant vessel off coast of Venezuela in international waters

US forces on Saturday stopped a second merchant vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, according to two US officials, the Associated Press reported.

The move comes days after Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in to and out of the South American country and follows the seizure by US forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast on 10 December.

The officials were not authorized to discuss publicly the ongoing military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity, the AP said.

The development comes as Trump and his advisers have refused to rule out the potential for open conflict with Venezuela as its country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has urged his navy to escort oil tankers, defying the largest US fleet deployed in the region in decades.

In an interview broadcast on Friday morning, Trump told NBC News that going to war with Maduro’s regime remains on the table. “I don’t rule it out, no,” he said in a phone interview with the network.

The US further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela this week, accusing the country of taking US oil and saying the US lost out on investments in the country. “You remember they took all of our energy rights,” Trump said. “They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it – they illegally took it.” On Tuesday, the US president ordered a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

On Thursday, the US military carried out its latest lethal strike on a vessel it said was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, killing four people, and bringing the death toll to 99 in its campaign of striking alleged drug-trafficking boats since September.

Maduro claims the US seeks regime change instead of its stated goal of stopping drug trafficking.

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, waded into the dispute on Wednesday, declaring that the United Nations was “nowhere to be seen” and asked that it step up to “prevent any bloodshed”.