Trump orders blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump says he's ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela. In a social media post, he said the US military build-up near Venezuela would only get bigger and described the government of Nicolas Maduro as a terrorist organisation. The Venezuelan government has accused President Trump of launching warlike threats. We hear from a US Democrat congressman.
Also in the programme: The EU waters down its plan to end new petrol and diesel car sales by by 2035 and we hear how the Hollywood star, Timothee Chalamet, spent seven years mastering table tennis for his latest film role in Marty Supreme
Photo: US President Donald J Trump speaks at a round-table with high-tech business executives in Washington DC, USA Credit: AARON SCHWARTZ/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.7 | Hello and welcome to NewsAff from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:13.0 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.9 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:16.7 | And we're going to begin with Venezuela and the Trump administration slow but steady ratcheting up of pressure against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. |
| 0:26.1 | That campaign began with attacks against boats alleged to be smuggling drugs into the US. |
| 0:31.5 | There's now been 25 in all, killing at least 95 people. |
| 0:35.7 | There's also been a huge build-up of US military hardware in the Caribbean, |
| 0:40.1 | including the presence of the world's biggest aircraft carrier. |
| 0:43.6 | And now what Mr. Trump's called the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America, |
| 0:50.2 | deployed to stop sanctioned oil tankers from leaving or entering Venezuelan waters, a, quote, complete blockade, he says. |
| 1:03.4 | Well, that announcement was met with condemnation from the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shown here on state TV, dancing to a song called Not War, |
| 1:12.2 | Yes to Peace. |
| 1:13.7 | He said the block A was just an attempt to get hold of Venezuela's abundant natural resources, |
| 1:18.6 | including the world's largest proven oil reserves. |
| 1:27.2 | And our world's world's world's of the United. We tell the people of the United States right want to colonize |
| 1:28.5 | we tell the people of the United States |
| 1:33.1 | are truth and it is very clear. |
| 1:36.5 | Imperialism and the Nazi fascist right wing |
| 1:39.3 | want to colonize Venezuela |
| 1:41.2 | to take our wealth, |
| 1:49.8 | oil, gas, gold, iron, aluminum and other minerals. |
... |
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