The US has seized an oil tanker that had just lately departed from Venezuela, in keeping with the US Division of Homeland Safety.
It’s the second time this month that the US has seized an oil-carrying ship off the nation’s coast.
The transfer comes after US President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he was ordering a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers getting into and leaving Venezuela.
Venezuela has condemned the most recent US seizure, describing it as “theft and kidnapping”. Venezuela has beforehand accused the US of attempting to steal its sources.
“These acts is not going to go unpunished,” an announcement from the Venezuelan authorities stated, including that it intends to file a criticism with the UN Safety Council and “different multilateral businesses 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 video of the operation on X.
“In a pre-dawn motion early this morning on Dec 20, the US Coast Guard with the help of the Division of Battle apprehended an oil tanker that was final docked in Venezuela,” Noem wrote.
She posted a seven-minute video of the operation, which reveals US helicopters touchdown on the deck of a ship with the title Centuries written on the facet.
“America will proceed to pursue the illicit motion of sanctioned oil that’s used to fund narco terrorism within the area,” Noem wrote, including: “We’ll discover you, and we are going to cease you.”
The Centuries is a Panamanian-flagged ship, however prior to now 5 years it has additionally sailed underneath the flags of Greece and Liberia, in keeping with data seen by BBC Confirm.
It’s not on the US Treasury’s record of sanctioned vessels.
In current 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 folks.
The US has offered no public proof that these vessels had been carrying medicine, and the army has come underneath rising scrutiny from Congress over the strikes.
The US has accused Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro of main a designated-terrorist organisation known as Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.
The Trump administration accuses him and the group 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 will proceed to “unflinchingly conduct maritime interdiction operations… to dismantle illicit legal 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 every 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 varied methods to hide its work.
The White Home stated the vessel in query, known as the Skipper, had been concerned in “illicit oil transport” and could be taken to a US port.
Venezuela’s authorities decried the transfer, with Maduro saying the US “kidnapped the crew” and “stole” the ship.
