US Seizes 2nd Oil Tanker Off Venezuela

The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, the latest salvo in a pressure campaign against Caracas, the US government said.

It was the second time in two weeks that US forces have interdicted a tanker in the region, and comes days after Donald Trump announced a blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” heading to and leaving Venezuela.

“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” Kristi Noem, the US homeland security chief, said in a post on X.

The post was accompanied by a nearly eight-minute video of aerial footage that showed a helicopter hovering just above the deck of a large tanker at sea.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you,” Ms Noem added.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the tanker contained sanctioned oil.

The Venezuelan government called the tanker interception a “serious act of international piracy”.

“(Venezuela) denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting oil, as well as the forced disappearance ‍of its crew, committed by ‌military personnel of the United States of America in international waters,” a government statement said.

Caracas said the seizure would be reported to the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organisations and governments.

British maritime risk management company Vanguard said the vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.

Jeremy Paner, a partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former OFAC investigator, said the vessel has not been sanctioned by the US.

“The seizure of a vessel that is not sanctioned by ‍the US marks a further increase in Trump’s pressure on Venezuela,” Mr Paner said.

“It also runs counter to Trump’s statement that the US would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers.”

On December 10, US forces seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which the attorney-general said was involved in carrying sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran.

The US has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean, with the stated goal of combatting Latin American drug trafficking, but taking particular aim at Venezuela.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the Venezuelan defence minister, voiced defiance in comments at a public event in Caracas on Saturday, but made no mention of the interdicted ship.

“We are waging a battle against lies, manipulation, interference, military threats, and psychological warfare,” he said, adding “that will not intimidate us”.

There are currently 11 US warships in the Caribbean: the world’s largest aircraft carrier, an amphibious assault ship, two amphibious transport dock ships, two cruisers and five destroyers.

There are US Coast Guard vessels deployed in the region as well, but the service declined to provide figures on those assets “for operational security reasons”.

Caracas views the operation as a campaign to push out Nicolas Maduro – whom Washington and many nations view as an illegitimate president – and to “steal” Venezuelan oil.

The US military has also conducted a series of air strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September. Critics have questioned the legality of the attacks, which have killed more than 100 people.