{"id":461101,"date":"2025-12-21T00:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461101\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T00:21:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:21:15","slug":"us-forces-stop-a-second-merchant-vessel-off-the-coast-of-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461101\/","title":{"rendered":"US forces stop a second merchant vessel off the coast of Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. forces on Saturday stopped an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela<\/a> for the second time in less than two weeks as President Donald Trump<\/a> continues to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/a><\/p>\n

The pre-dawn operation comes days after Trump announced a \u201cblockade\u201d of all sanctioned oil tankers<\/a> coming in and out of the South American country and follows the Dec. 10 seizure by American forces<\/a> of an oil tanker off Venezuela\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard with help from the Defense Department stopped the oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. She also posted on social media an unclassified video of a U.S helicopter landing personnel on a vessel called Centuries. <\/p>\n

A crude oil tanker flying under the flag of Panama operates under the name and was recently spotted near the Venezuelan coast, according to MarineTraffic, a project that tracks the movement of vessels around the globe using publicly available data. It was not immediately clear if the vessel was under U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,\u201d Noem wrote on X. \u201cWe will find you, and we will stop you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The action was a \u201cconsented boarding,\u201d with the tanker stopping voluntarily and allowing U.S. forces to board it, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Pentagon and White House officials did not immediately respond to a requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s government in a statement Saturday characterized the U.S. forces\u2019 actions as \u201ccriminal\u201d and vowed to not let them \u201cgo unpunished\u201d by pursuing various legal avenues, including by filing complaints with the United Nations Security Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Trump following the first tanker seizure, of a vessel named the Skipper, this month vowed that the U.S. would carry out a blockade of Venezuela. It all comes as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Maduro and warned that the longtime Venezuelan leader\u2019s days in power are numbered.<\/p>\n

And the president this week demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a \u201cblockade\u201d against oil tankers traveling<\/a> to or from the South American country that face American sanctions.<\/p>\n

Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a pressure campaign<\/a> against Maduro, suggesting the Republican administration\u2019s moves are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are diverting away from Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn\u2019t be going through,\u201d Trump told reporters earlier this week. \u201cYou remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it \u2014 they illegally took it.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. oil companies dominated Venezuela\u2019s petroleum industry<\/a> until the country\u2019s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014, an international arbitration panel ordered the country\u2019s socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.<\/p>\n

The targeting of tankers comes as Trump has ordered the Defense Department to carry out a series of attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that his administration alleges are smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the United States and beyond. <\/p>\n

At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes<\/a> since early September. <\/p>\n

The strikes have faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard, sometimes with help from the Navy, had typically interdicted boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, searched for illicit cargo, and arrested the people aboard for prosecution.<\/p>\n

The administration has justified the strikes as necessary, asserting it is in \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels<\/a> aimed at halting the flow of narcotics into the United States. Maduro faces federal charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The U.S. in recent months has sent a fleet of warships<\/a> to the region, the largest buildup of forces in generations, and Trump has stated repeatedly that land attacks are coming soon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from power.<\/p>\n

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair<\/a> published this week that Trump \u201cwants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Madhani reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. forces on Saturday stopped an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela for the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":461102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75904,1613,69,20228,10102,57,51,92551,4228,2399,1612,8132,50,92550,80,4217,114557,5343,52,25731,3676,370,32322,14513,93,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-461101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-blockades","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-drug-crimes","12":"tag-energy-industry","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-hugo-chvez","16":"tag-indictments","17":"tag-kristi-noem","18":"tag-latin-america","19":"tag-military-and-defense","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-nicolas-maduro","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-south-america","24":"tag-susie-wiles","25":"tag-terrorism","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-u-s-department-of-defense","28":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","29":"tag-united-states-government","30":"tag-venezuela","31":"tag-venezuela-government","32":"tag-washington-news","33":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115754702168048219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}