US intercepts another tanker off Venezuela as Washington escalates pressure campaign against Caracas
Tehran - BORNA - According to US officials, the pre-dawn operation on Saturday involved the US Coast Guard, with support from the War Department, intercepting an oil tanker that had last docked in Venezuela.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the action and released unclassified video footage showing a US helicopter landing personnel on the vessel, identified as the Centuries.
The tanker, a crude oil carrier sailing under the Panamanian flag, was recently detected near the Venezuelan coast, according to vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic. US authorities did not immediately clarify whether the ship itself was subject to American sanctions.
Noem said the operation was part of Washington’s effort to halt the movement of “sanctioned oil,” which the US government alleges is used to fund “narcoterrorism” in the region. “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil,” she wrote on social media, adding, “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
A US official cited by the Associated Press claimed the action was a “consented boarding.”
The latest interception followed Trump’s announcement earlier this month of what he described as a “blockade” of “sanctioned oil tankers” traveling to and from Venezuela.
It also comes days after US forces seized another tanker, the Skipper, off Venezuela’s coast on December 10.
Trump has repeatedly cited alleged disputes over oil assets and claims of drug trafficking as self-described justification for escalating pressure on Caracas.
This week, he claimed that Venezuela had to return assets “seized” from US oil companies years ago, alleging that those losses had helped drive his decision to move against oil shipments linked to the country.
US oil companies once dominated Venezuela’s petroleum sector until nationalization campaigns in the 1970s.
The tanker interdictions are unfolding alongside a broader US military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, where Trump has ordered strikes on vessels his administration claims are smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
Since early September, at least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes.
Those operations have drawn scrutiny from human rights groups and even members of Congress, who say the administration has provided limited evidence that the targeted vessels were engaged in drug trafficking and have raised concerns that the strikes amounted to extrajudicial killings.
The United States has also deployed a large number of warships to the region in recent months, representing the most significant military buildup there in generations. Trump has repeatedly warned that land-based operations could follow.
Maduro has rejected US accusations, insisting that Washington’s real objective was to remove him from power.
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