Mexico City, Mexico - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged the UN on Wednesday to "prevent any bloodshed" in Venezuela, as US President Donald Trump piled pressure on the South American country.

"The United Nations has been conspicuously absent. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed and to always seek the peaceful resolution of conflicts," Sheinbaum told a press conference the morning after Washington announced a blockade of "sanctioned oil tankers" entering or leaving Venezuela.

The US has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean, under the pretext of combatting drug trafficking.

But many believe the true aim is overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and securing control over the country's vast oil reserves.

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Sheinbaum said that regardless of opinions about the leadership of Maduro, Mexico's position is to reject "foreign interference."

"We call for dialogue and peace to be used in any international dispute, and not intervention. That is our position by conviction and by our Constitution," she added.

Chile's newly elected far-right president, José Antonio Kast, on Tuesday said that he would back efforts to end Maduro's "dictatorship," expanding Trump's support base in the region at a time when he is considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.

The US Embassy in Quito announced Wednesday that US Air Force personnel were in Ecuador's Pacific port city of Manta for "a temporary operation with the Ecuadorian Air Force." It did not specify how many people or equipment had been deployed.

Strikes on three boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed eight people on Monday, according to the US military, the latest in a campaign of mass killing that the Trump administration insists is targeting drug dealers.

Legal experts and rights groups say the attacks are unlawful and constitute extrajudicial executions and international war crimes.