U.S. forces “apprehended” an oil tanker off Venezuela early Wednesday, the latest move in a stepped-up pressure campaign against Caracas that has increasingly played out at sea.
It was the second tanker interdicted in two weeks and follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a blockade targeting “sanctioned oil vessels” heading to and leaving Venezuela.
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“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” U.S. Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said in a post on X. Her post included nearly eight minutes of aerial footage showing a helicopter hovering low over the deck of a large tanker in open water.
Noem did not release identifying details for the ship, and it was not immediately clear whether the vessel was under U.S. sanctions. The Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed U.S. official and two people inside Venezuela’s oil industry, reported the tanker was Panamanian-flagged, carrying Venezuelan oil, and had recently departed Venezuela before entering Caribbean waters.
The action comes amid a sustained U.S. maritime buildup in the Caribbean, nominally aimed at countering Latin American drug trafficking but frequently focused on Venezuela’s sanctioned energy trade. On Dec. 10, U.S. forces seized a large oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast that the attorney general said was involved in transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López struck a defiant tone at a public event in Caracas broadcast on state television, without mentioning the interdicted ship. “We are waging a battle against lies, manipulation, interference, military threats, and psychological warfare,” he said, adding, “that will not intimidate us.”
Caracas has cast the U.S.-led maritime operation as an attempt to force out President Nicolás Maduro—whom Washington and several other governments deem illegitimate—and to “steal” Venezuelan oil.
There are currently 11 U.S. warships in the Caribbean: the world’s largest aircraft carrier, an amphibious assault ship, two amphibious transport dock ships, two cruisers and five destroyers. The U.S. Coast Guard also has vessels deployed in the region, though the service has declined to disclose numbers “for operational security reasons.”
Since September, the U.S. military has carried out a series of airstrikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Critics have questioned the legality of the attacks, which have killed more than 100 people.
Wednesday’s apprehension underscores how enforcement of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector has increasingly moved from financial channels to maritime interdictions, with Washington seeking to deter shipments it says evade restrictions by obscuring cargo origins, reflagging vessels or using offshore transfers. The stepped-up operations have added to tensions with Caracas and complicated oil flows through the Caribbean at a time of volatile global energy markets.
Key details about the latest seizure—including the tanker’s name, cargo destination and the legal basis for the interdiction—were not immediately available. U.S. officials have indicated more actions could follow as Washington pressures Venezuela over its energy exports and political crackdown, while Venezuelan authorities continue to denounce what they call external interference and intimidation.
This is a developing story.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
