Venezuela has accused the United States of the greatest extortion at an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York.
Washington's seizure of two Venezuelan oil tankers was worse than piracy, the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN said.
The emergency meeting of the Security Council was called to discuss the seizure of the tankers, which took place off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month.
The US has also said it was pursuing a third Venezuelan oil tanker.
President Trump has accused Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drugs cartel and that gangs have operated with impunity for too long.
On 16 December, Trump ordered a naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. The US president has announced that they will keep or sell the crude oil contained on tankers they have seized, as well as the vessels themselves.
The US has deployed 15,000 troops along with a variety of aircraft carriers and ships to the Caribbean, marking the largest deployment in the region since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
The stated aim of this troop deployment is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine into the US.
Nevertheless, Venezuela's envoy to the UN asserted that the US is subjecting his country to the greatest extortion in its history, characterizing the US actions as pillaging and looting.
In defense of the US actions, US Ambassador to the UN, Michael Waltz, stated that the US does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
As tensions rise, Russian and Chinese officials have accused the US of bullying and have called for an immediate halt to these aggressive maneuvers.
