{"id":2527,"date":"2025-12-11T02:19:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2527"},"modified":"2025-12-11T02:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:19:04","slug":"us-forces-seize-oil-tanker-off-venezuela-coast-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2527","title":{"rendered":"US forces seize oil tanker off Venezuela coast | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump\u2019s four-month pressure campaign<\/a> against the South American country\u2019s dictator, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

The US president confirmed the operation on Wednesday, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela<\/a> \u2013 a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was seized for a very good reason,\u201d Trump added, declining to say who owned the vessel.<\/p>\n

Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Footage of the seizure was shared online.<\/span> Photograph: X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an accompanying statement, Bondi said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, had \u201cexecuted a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the tanker had been sanctioned by the US for \u201cmultiple years\u201d due to its \u201cinvolvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s government made no immediate comment on the seizure \u2013 but speaking at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged citizens to act like \u201cwarriors\u201d and be ready \u201cto smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on his weekly television show, the interior minister Diosdado Cabello said: \u201cThey want to steal our oil … steal our gold … steal our gas … steal our water … They are thieves.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A screen grab from a video posted Bondi on Wednesday after the US seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.<\/span> Photograph: US Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s X account\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he succeeded Hugo Ch\u00e1vez after his death from cancer. Widely believed to have stolen last year\u2019s presidential election, Maduro has clung to power after launching a wave of repression that forced Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, the apparent winner of the 2024 vote, into exile in Spain.<\/p>\n

Since August, the US has put a $50m bounty<\/a> on Maduro\u2019s head, launched the biggest naval deployment<\/a> in the Caribbean Sea since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis<\/a>, and carried out a series of deadly airstrikes<\/a> on alleged drug boats that have killed more than 80 people.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The aircraft flew just north<\/a> of Maracaibo, one of Venezuela\u2019s most populous cities.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s most important backer, the opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was awarded the Nobel peace prize for her \u201ctireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a peaceful and just transition from dictatorship to democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Machado\u2019s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the prize<\/a>, telling a ceremony in Oslo that her mother\u2019s struggle to end years of \u201cobscene corruption\u201d and \u201cbrutal dictatorship\u201d would go on.<\/p>\n

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