President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday afternoon that the U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“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. He said the tanker “was seized for a very good reason” without revealing further details.
The escalation in tension with the Maduro regime comes as the Trump administration has been accusing the socialist leader of fueling narcoterrorism in the United States.
After a series of deadly airstrikes on what the U.S. has determined to be drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, the U.S. military has been building up the largest military presence in the region in decades.
Trump said today that “other things are happening,” but did not offer further details, saying he would speak more about it when the time is right. But he has previously said land attacks are on the horizon for Venezuela.
The tanker seizure was reportedly carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard with support from the Navy, according to an anonymous U.S. official who contends that the seizure was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.
When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
Venezuela has been locked out of global oil markets since 2014 through U.S. sanctions implemented by the U.S. Congress and presidential administrations, so it has been using shadowy methods and shell companies to sell its oil to the communist regime in China.
The Biden administration had lifted restrictions in 2022 to allow oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. That resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s repressive regime.
Maduro did not address today’s tanker seizure during a speech before a ruling-party demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”
