US tells UN it will deprive Venezuela's Maduro, drug cartel of resources

The United States told the United Nations on Tuesday it will impose and enforce sanctions "to the maximum extent" to deprive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of resources as Russia warned other Latin American countries could be next.



U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has for months waged a campaign of deadly strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats off the Venezuelan coast and the Pacific coast of Latin America. He has threatened strikes on Venezuelan land.



"The single most serious threat to this hemisphere, our very own neighborhood and ‍the United States, is from transnational terrorist and criminal groups,"

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the U.N. Security Council.



The U.S. has ramped up its military presence in the region and Trump announced a blockade of all vessels subject to U.S. sanctions. So far this month, the

U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted two tankers in the Caribbean Sea, both fully loaded with Venezuelan crude. The Coast Guard is also pursuing a third empty vessel that was approaching the OPEC country's shore.