As President Donald Trump continues to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. forces on Saturday stopped an oil ship off the coast of Venezuela for the second time in less than two weeks.
The pre-dawn operation followed the American military seizure of an oil ship off the coast of Venezuela on December 10 and comes days after Trump declared a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil vessels entering and leaving the South American nation.
The oil ship that was last docked in Venezuela was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard with assistance from the Defense Department, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Additionally, she shared an unclassified video of a U.S. helicopter landing personnel on a ship named Centuries on social media.
MarineTraffic, a project that uses publicly accessible data to track the movement of vessels worldwide, reports that a crude oil tanker operating under the Panamanian flag was recently seen close to the Venezuelan shore. Whether the ship was subject to U.S. sanctions was not immediately apparent.
Noem stated on X, "The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region." "We'll track you down and put an end to you."
According to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity and was not permitted to discuss publicly, the move was a "consented boarding," in which the tanker stopped willingly and allowed U.S. soldiers to board it.
Compared to the first tanker, the Skipper, which was known to be a part of a shadow fleet of tankers that operate on the edge of the law to move sanctioned cargo and was not even flying a national flag when it was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard, the rationale behind the Centuries seizure is far less clear. In an online statement on Saturday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly asserted that the Centuries was a similarly "falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil" and that the oil it was transporting was sanctioned.
But according to multiple shipping industry records, the Centuries seemed to be operating lawfully, according to Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano, a marine history and expert in commerce shipping at Campbell University.
Mercogliano stated, "Everything shows that she is a properly registered vessel," but he acknowledged that it's quite likely that the Centuries carried a load of sanctioned oil.
Mercogliano saw the seizure as "a big escalation" even though the Centuries was transporting sanctioned oil. He continued, "This one is meant to scare other tankers away."
In a statement released on Saturday, the Venezuelan government called the acts of the U.S. military "criminal" and pledged to not allow them to "go unpunished" through a variety of legal channels, including submitting objections with the UN Security Council.
The statement reads, "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of another private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the enforced disappearance of its crew, perpetrated by United States military personnel in international waters."
Trump promised that the United States will impose a blockade on Venezuela when the first tanker, the Skipper, was seized this month.
All of this occurs as Trump has intensified his criticism of Maduro and issued a warning that the veteran Venezuelan leader's time in office is running out.
This week, the president further justified his announcement of a "blockade" against oil ships heading to or from the South American nation that is subject to American sanctions by demanding that Venezuela restore assets that it had taken from American oil companies years ago.
When asked about his latest strategy in a pressure campaign on Maduro, Trump pointed to the lost U.S. assets in Venezuela, implying that the Republican administration's actions are at least partially driven by disagreements over oil investments and allegations of drug trafficking.
Tankers that are subject to sanctions are already avoiding Venezuela. Trump told reporters earlier this week, "We're not going to be letting anybody go through who shouldn't be going through." They stole all of our energy rights, you recall. Not too long ago, they stole all of our oil. We also want it returned. They took it illegally.
Before Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, tried to nationalize the sector in the 1970s and again in the 21st century, U.S. oil firms dominated Venezuela's petroleum industry.
An international arbitration panel ordered Venezuela's socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil in 2014 after the country's compensation was found to be inadequate.
Tankers are being targeted because Trump has directed the Defense Department to launch a number of attacks on ships in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean that his administration claims are transporting illegal substances, including fentanyl, into the US and other countries.
Since early September, 28 known hits have resulted in at least 104 fatalities. U.S. politicians and human rights advocates have scrutinized the strikes, claiming that the administration has provided no proof that its targets are, in fact, drug smugglers and that the deadly operations amount to extrajudicial killings.
Vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea were usually intercepted by the Coast Guard, sometimes with assistance from the Navy. The Coast Guard then examined the vessels for illegal cargo and detained the occupants for possible prosecution.
The administration has defended the strikes by claiming that it is engaged in "armed conflict" with drug gangs in an effort to stop the flow of drugs into the country.
Maduro is accused of narcoterrorism by federal authorities in the United States. Trump has repeatedly said that land attacks are imminent, and the United States has moved a fleet of warships to the area in recent months the biggest military buildup in centuries.
Maduro has said that the U.S. military actions are really intended to remove him from office. In a Vanity Fair interview last week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles stated that Trump "wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle."
Maduro has said that the U.S. military actions are really intended to remove him from office. In a Vanity Fair interview last week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles stated that Trump "wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle."
