It comes a week after the US seized an oil tanker off the country's coast, intensifying pressure on Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has said that President Donald Trump's threats against his nation are "simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense." Speaking in Caracas on Wednesday, he said that Trump's aim was regime change to impose a "puppet government that wouldn't last 47 hours,

Trump orders total blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers as the South American nation controls world's largest oil reserves with over 300 billion barrels.

Maduro survived sanctions, including on Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state oil company, imposed during the first Trump administration and still has a few lifelines.

President Donald Trump is demanding Venezuela pay for assets that Trump says were stolen from U.S. companies when the South American country nationalized its oil industry years ago.

President Trump said the United States wanted to reclaim expropriated oil assets, setting off a nationalist reaction in a country where the resource holds a mythical status.

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly defeated two resolutions on Wednesday seeking to rein in President Donald Trump's aggression toward Venezuela, amid widespread speculation that the Republican will launch an attack on the South American oil state's territory.

The votes follow a monthslong military campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.