The Trump administration on Friday denied reports from Caracas alleging that the United States had abruptly halted deportation flights to Venezuela. Venezuelan authorities said the U.S. government had unilaterally suspended a scheduled deportation flight that was due to land on December 12.

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 Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Vladimir Putin calls Nicolás Maduro to pledge Russian support as U.S. pressure on Venezuela intensifies following massive oil tanker seizure and Caribbean military buildup.

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.

Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister denounced the seizure, calling it a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”

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.