The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, a move Caracas denounced as “theft and kidnapping,” as Washington intensified its pressure campaign, U.S. officials said.
It was the second time in two weeks that U.S. forces had interdicted a tanker in the region and came days after President Donald Trump announced a blockade of "sanctioned oil vessels" heading to and leaving Venezuela.
"In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the U.S. Coast Guard, with the support of the Department of War, apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela," U.S. Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said in a post on X.
The post was accompanied by a nearly eight-minute video of aerial footage that showed a helicopter hovering just above the deck of a large tanker at sea.
Caracas slammed the seizure as theft and kidnapping, saying "those responsible for these serious events will answer to justice and to history for their criminal conduct."
