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.

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.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Friday promised political change after slipping out of the country in secret to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, as the shock waves intensified from the Trump administration's seizure of an oil tanker earlier this week.

Maria Corina Machado, asked by CBS News' Margaret Brennan about Trump's threat of land strikes, said she'd "welcome more and more pressure" on Maduro.

The rescue operation to get Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado out of Venezuela involved disguises, two boats through choppy seas and a flight, the man who says he led it told the BBC.

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.