Escalation against Maduro: US seizes unsanctioned tanker with Venezuelan oil owned by China

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Saturday that the administration of President Donald Trump seized another oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in international waters, as part of the "blockade" that the Republican leader ordered against any and all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the South American country. The seizure was made by a Coast Guard operation, which departed from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford. The tanker had last docked in Venezuela and had nearly two million barrels of Venezuelan oil on board.

"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. The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you. Thank you to our brave men and women of the @USCG and @DeptofWar," Noem said.

For his part, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced via his X account: "President Trump has been clear: the blockade of sanctioned oil tankers departing from, or bound for, Venezuela will remain in full force until Maduro’s criminal enterprise returns every stolen American asset. The @DeptofWar, with our partners at @USCG, will unflinchingly conduct maritime interdiction operations — through OPERATION SOUTHERN SPEAR — to dismantle illicit criminal networks. Violence, drugs, and chaos will not control the Western Hemisphere."

In response to the seizure, the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro issued a statement in which it assured that the acts perpetrated by the Trump Administration will not go "unpunished", also assuring that it will take different diplomatic actions including denouncing the U.S. government before the United Nations Security Council.

The tanker had not been sanctioned by the United States

According to the news agency Reuters, the British maritime risk management firm Vanguard reported that the tanker was the Centuries, which is owned by China, is Panama-flagged, and was intercepted east of the island of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. The media also pointed out that, according to Jeremy Paner, former investigator of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and partner at the law firm Hughes Hubbard, the seizure by the Coast Guard would have represented a genuine escalation in Trump's pressure against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, by ensuring that said oil tanker has not been sanctioned by the United States.

"The seizure of a vessel that is not sanctioned by the U.S. marks a further increase in Trump’s pressure on Venezuela. It also runs counter to Trump’s statement that the U.S. would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers," Paner told the news agency.