December 20, 2025, 7:44 p.mDecember 20, 2025, 7:44 p.m
An oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. (Archive image, December 17, 2025)Image: keystone
The conflict between the USA and Venezuela continues to escalate: According to consistent media reports, the US Coast Guard was in the process of seizing such a ship on Saturday for the first time since an American blockade of sanctioned oil tankers on the way to and from Venezuela came into force.
The US Coast Guard has captured a sanctioned ship off the Venezuelan coast, NBC News and ABC News reported, citing US officials. Accordingly, the US military supported the operation by bringing Coast Guard forces to the ship and observing the operations from the air.
Trump previously announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers
A few days earlier, US President Donald Trump had ordered a “complete and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela”. He justified this by saying that the South American country had stolen oil, land and other assets from the USA – these had to be returned. The Republican also accused Venezuela’s authoritarian head of state Nicolás Maduro of using “the oil from these stolen oil fields to finance drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnappings.”
At the beginning of the 2000s, Venezuela nationalized oil fields – both foreign and US companies were affected. As a result, a dispute arose over compensation payments. In 2019, Trump imposed sanctions on the state oil company PDVSA during his first term in office.
Not the first US seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela
Just a few days before Trump’s blockade announcement, the US military had already taken control of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel said at the time that the ship was part of an illegal network that transported oil to support foreign terrorist organizations.
The government of the South American country strongly condemned the storming. The operation was “a brazen robbery and an act of international piracy,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Caracas.
Things have been simmering between Washington and Caracas for months. The US military has repeatedly sunk boats allegedly loaded with drugs in the Caribbean and sometimes in the Pacific. The US government officially states that it wants to use its aggressive approach to combat drug cartels. According to experts, Venezuela is not considered a drug production country, but rather a transit country – especially for the European market. (sda/dpa)