A White House official told Newsweek that deportation flights to Venezuela “will continue."

The Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic twists yet in a military pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro.

With the economy in ruins, and U.S. military forces off the coast, uncertainty and rumors mark life in Venezuela, dampening the yuletide mood.

Experts say that Russian and Chinese support for Venezuela has largely dried up, with no prospect of real military or financial aid.

The US special forces veteran who spirited Nobel laureate María Corina Machado out of Venezuela has begged her not to return to the country, after a perilous rescue mission that lasted nearly 16 hours and was carried out largely in the middle of the night through rough waters.

U.S. Navy aircraft carried out patrol flights Friday near the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as part of what Washington describes as an expanded security operation targeting illicit trafficking networks — a move Venezuela denounced as an act of intimidation and a prelude to broader conflict in the region.

Venezuela is bracing for a possible land attack after President Donald Trump said, “It’s going to be starting on land pretty soon,” following the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker.

President Trump’s secretary of state and national security adviser has long sought to cripple or topple Cuba’s government, which has close security and economic ties to Venezuela.