President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized"a very large" oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid mounting tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
It's the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The US has conducted a series of deadly military strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean on boats that the Republican administration has alleged are carrying drugs.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said “other things are happening”, but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later.
Venezuela's foreign ministry meanwhile said in a statement it"strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States."
The seizure was carried led by the US Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a US official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under US law enforcement authority.
Shortly after, Maduro demanded an end to US intervention in his country, months into a naval deployment near the Caribbean nation that has sparked fears of military action.
"From Venezuela, we ask and demand an end to the illegal and brutal interventionism of the United States government in Venezuela and in Latin America," Maduro told supporters gathered in Caracas on the day his main rival was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. Locked out of global oil markets by US sanctions, the state-owned oil company sells most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.
The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries as sanctions scared away more established traders. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy “ghost tankers” that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.
A day earlier, the US military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace since the start of the administration’s pressure campaign.
The US has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered any details on location.
Among the concessions the US has made to Maduro during past negotiations was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.
