The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, increasing American pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Here’s what we know:
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the tanker has been sanctioned by the United States for years “for its involvement in an illegal oil transportation network that supports foreign terrorist organizations, including Venezuela and Iran.”
Bondi posted a video to X showing armed personnel rappelling onto the ship from a helicopter and moving across the deck with guns drawn. He said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Coast Guard conducted the seizure “with assistance from the Department of the Army.”
US seizes oil tanker off Venezuela
President Donald Trump acknowledged Wednesday that the United States had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi later posted a video to X showing armed men rappelling onto the ship from helicopters and moving across the deck with guns drawn.
According to a senior U.S. official, the seizure occurred in international waters and proceeded without any casualties or casualties among U.S. military personnel or the tanker crew.
Officials said the ship, named Skipper, was carrying Venezuelan crude oil.
President Trump did not elaborate on the move, saying only that the ship was seized for “very good reasons.”
The Venezuelan government “strongly condemned” the seizure and described the move as “an act of international piracy.”
The United States is now several months into a pressure campaign against Venezuela that includes moving thousands of troops and an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, attacking suspected drug smuggling vessels and making repeated threats against President Maduro. So far, the U.S. military has killed 87 people in airstrikes that have destroyed 23 suspected drug ships, and President Trump has repeatedly suggested land-based action could be forthcoming.
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