Venezuela's regional allies expressed their support for the government at a summit where they condemned the seizure of an oil tanker by the Trump administration last week, Reuters reported.
The seizure of the tanker "Skipper" off the coast of Venezuela last Wednesday was the first US seizure of a Venezuelan oil cargo since US sanctions were imposed in 2019.
The support for President Nicolas Maduro, expressed during a virtual meeting of the leftist ALBA bloc of Caribbean and Latin American countries, came at a time of escalating US military presence in the southern Caribbean Sea.
"Latin America and the Caribbean today face threats that have no precedent in recent decades," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said at the summit.
Nicaragua's co-president Daniel Ortega exclaimed: "They are thieves," referring to the seizure of the tanker.
The consequences of the seizure could reverberate throughout the region, with Venezuelan oil exports set to plummet. will drop sharply, and Cuba, which is already struggling to power its electricity grid, risks losing its supplies.
The administration of US President Donald Trump does not recognize Maduro, who has ruled the country since 2013, as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
Tensions in the region have been rising after the US carried out strikes on ships suspected of drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela and in the eastern Pacific.
Maduro said Trump was trying to remove him from power. At the summit, the Venezuelan president called on the ALBA bloc to oppose what he described as illegal interference in the region.
"The colonizers' project will not be implemented," he assured. "We will be free."