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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived at the White House for lunch with Donald Trump on Thursday, a meeting that could affect how the U.S. president seeks to shape the South American country’s political future, hours after the U.S. has seized another Venezuela-linked tanker.
Machado, who fled Venezuela in a seaborne escape in December, finds herself competing for Trump’s ear with members of Venezuela’s government and seeking to ensure she has a role in governing the nation going forward.
The lunch marks the first time the two have met in person.
The seizure of the tanker Thursday is the sixth vessel targeted in recent weeks that was either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the seizure took place in the Caribbean.
The U.S. military’s Southern Command confirmed the pre-dawn operation, saying U.S. forces apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica “without incident.” It said the Veronica was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” Southern Command said in a statement.
The Guyana-flagged Aframax tanker Veronica departed empty from Venezuelan waters in early January, according to shipping documents from state company PDVSA and monitoring service TankerTrackers.com. The vessel had not returned to Venezuela as other ships have done in recent days.
The seizures began as part of Trump’s campaign to force Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro out of power, which culminated in U.S. forces swooping into the country to grab him and his wife on Jan. 3.
The United States is tightening its grip on Venezuela’s oil supplies after seizing two more tankers, one of them flying a Russian flag. The U.S. said the tankers were part of a ‘shadow fleet’ carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
Since then, Trump has said the United States plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion US plan.
The U.S. government has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to the Venezuelan oil trade, four sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as Washington consolidates control of oil shipments in and out of the South American country.
The vessels intercepted so far have been either under U.S. sanctions or part of a “shadow fleet” of unregulated ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers — Iran, Russia or Venezuela.
Most of the Venezuela-linked vessels seized so far were flying fake flags or their flag registrations had been cancelled before the interceptions, the maritime authorities of Panama, Cook Islands and Guyana have told Reuters.
Last week, the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic.
The move was condemned by Moscow.
Trump has previously called her a “freedom fighter” but dismissed the idea of installing her to lead Venezuela after ousting Maduro, saying she did not have enough domestic support.
A classified CIA assessment presented to Trump concluded that Maduro loyalists, including Delcy Rodriguez, were best positioned to maintain stability.