“We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a big one. The biggest ever seized, in fact,” said Donald Trump. Asked about the fate of the oil on board, the US president admitted: “We keep it, I think.”
In the late afternoon, The White House spokeswoman confirmed that the seized oil tanker is expected to sail to a US port. At a press conference, Karoline Leavitt stated that “the US intends to seize the oil, but there is a legal process for seizing this oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
An investigation into the ship is currently underway, which involves a team on the ground and interviews with the crew on board, Leavitt said.
The seizure involved two helicopters, ten Marines and ten members of the US Coast Guard, as well as special operations forces, a source familiar with the operation told CBS. Boarding the ship involved an elite Coast Guard group called the Maritime Security and Response Team. This team is trained in counterterrorism and high-risk approach procedures – such as the rapid rope approach from a helicopter, which can be seen in the video. It was created after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The seizure of the oil tanker is raising concerns among American congressmen and senators. Quoted by the newspaper The Hill, Senator Rand Paul admitted to NewsNation that the action “looks a lot like starting a war” and that it is not “the role of the US government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries and starting wars”.
A concern shared by fellow senator Chris Coons who, at the same NewsNation, stated that, even though he does not know the details of the operation, he is “deeply concerned about the fact that Trump is sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”.
In Caracas, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, described the US action as “a blatant robbery”. In a statement released on Telegram, the government official recalls that this is not the first time that Washington has admitted such actions, remembering that in the 2024 American presidential campaign, Trump stated that his objective was always to keep Venezuelan oil without paying anything in return. He continues: “Venezuela calls on the entire Venezuelan people to remain firm in the defense of their homeland and urges the international community to reject this illegal and unprecedented aggression, which is intended to be normalized as a tool of pressure and plunder.”
Applauded by opponent María Corina Machado as “a necessary step” to confront Maduro’s “criminal” regime, the seizure of the tanker was also commented on by the Russian Foreign Minister. Sergei Lavrov called for more clarification about what happened.
A few days ago, Trump stated that Maduro’s days “are numbered”, not ruling out a land invasion of Venezuela by American forces. The US has maintained an important naval deployment for several weeks in the waters of the Caribbean Sea near the South American nation, seen by Caracas as a threat aimed at promoting regime change. Washington has multiplied attacks against vessels allegedly used by drug traffickers.