The US has seized an oil tanker that had lately departed from Venezuela, in keeping with the US Division of Homeland Safety.
It’s the second time this month that an oil-carrying ship has been seized off the nation’s coast.
The transfer comes after President Donald Trump mentioned on Tuesday that he was ordering a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers coming into and leaving Venezuela.
Venezuela has described the newest US transfer as “theft and kidnapping”. It has beforehand accused the Trump administration of attempting to steal its assets.
“These acts is not going to go unpunished,” an announcement from the Venezuelan authorities mentioned, including that it supposed to file a grievance with the UN Safety Council and “different multilateral companies and the governments of the world”.
The operation was led by the US Coast Guard, just like the operation earlier this month. The ship was boarded by a specialised tactical group, and was in worldwide waters when it was taken.
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, whose division oversees the Coast Guard, shared a seven-minute video of the operation on X.
It exhibits US helicopters touchdown on the deck of a ship with the title Centuries written on the aspect.
It’s a Panamanian-flagged ship, however previously 5 years it has additionally sailed beneath the flags of Greece and Liberia, in keeping with information seen by BBC Confirm.
It isn’t on the US Treasury’s checklist of sanctioned vessels, however within the hours after the announcement, the White Home clarified that its cargo was sanctioned.
“The tanker contained sanctioned PDVSA oil,” mentioned a submit from Anna Kelly, White Home deputy press secretary, referring to Venezuela’s state-run oil firm .
The submit mentioned the tanker was “working as a part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to visitors stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime.”
In latest weeks, the US has been build up its army presence within the Caribbean Sea and has carried out lethal strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats, killing round 100 individuals.
It has supplied no public proof that these vessels had been carrying medicine, and the army has come beneath rising scrutiny from Congress over the strikes.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro of main a designated-terrorist organisation referred to as Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.
Trump has accused Maduro’s authorities of utilizing “stolen” oil to “finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Homicide, and Kidnapping”.
Following the seizure of the second ship, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the US would proceed to “unflinchingly conduct maritime interdiction operations… to dismantle illicit prison networks.”
“Violence, medicine, and chaos is not going to management the Western Hemisphere.”
Venezuela – which is house to the world’s largest confirmed oil reserves – is very depending on revenues from its oil exports to finance its authorities spending.
Trump’s announcement of a blockade got here lower than per week after the US seized an oil tanker believed to be a part of the “ghost fleet” off the coast of Venezuela, which allegedly used numerous methods to hide its work.
Venezuela’s authorities decried the transfer, with Maduro saying the US “kidnapped the crew” and “stole” the ship.