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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has made it clear that Trinidad and To­ba­go is not in­volved in the block­ade or­dered by Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump tar­get­ing all “sanc­tioned oil tankers” en­ter­ing Venezuela.

On Tues­day, Pres­i­dent Trump said the large US naval ar­ma­da now amassed in the Caribbean “will on­ly get big­ger.” In a so­cial me­dia post, Trump said, “Venezuela is com­plete­ly sur­round­ed by the largest ar­ma­da ever as­sem­bled in the his­to­ry of South Amer­i­ca. It will on­ly get big­ger, and the shock to them will be like noth­ing they have ever seen be­fore — Un­til such time as they re­turn to the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca all of the oil, land, and oth­er as­sets that they pre­vi­ous­ly stole from us.”

The ramp­ing up of pres­sure on Cara­cas came af­ter US forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, an un­usu­al move that fol­lowed a build-up of US mil­i­tary forces in the re­gion.