{"id":185948,"date":"2025-12-11T03:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185948\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T03:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:24:15","slug":"venezuela-decries-act-of-piracy-after-us-forces-seize-oil-tanker-off-countrys-coast-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185948\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela decries \u2018act of piracy\u2019 after US forces seize oil tanker off country\u2019s coast | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump\u2019s four-month pressure campaign<\/a> against the South American country\u2019s dictator, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, whose government called the seizure \u201can act of international piracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump confirmed the operation on Wednesday, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela<\/a> \u2013 a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was seized for a very good reason,\u201d the US president added, declining to say who owned the vessel.<\/p>\n

Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter.<\/p>\n

Footage of the seizure was shared online. Photograph: X<\/p>\n

In an accompanying statement, Bondi said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, had \u201cexecuted a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the tanker had been sanctioned by the US for \u201cmultiple years\u201d due to its \u201cinvolvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted its own video edit<\/a> of the seizure, soundtracked with an excerpt from LL Cool J\u2019s song Mama Said Knock You Out. DHS has repeatedly faced criticism for poaching music<\/a> for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment ads. DHS recently used a Sabrina Carpenter song<\/a>, without permission, prompting the pop star to respond that the video was \u201cevil and disgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n

LL Cool J did not immediately address the use of his song.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s government said in the statement that the seizure \u201cconstitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

It continued: \u201cUnder these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed \u2026 It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, speaking at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged citizens to act like \u201cwarriors\u201d and be ready \u201cto smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

A screen grab from a video posted Bondi on Wednesday after the US seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Photograph: US attorney general Pam Bondi\u2019s X account\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he succeeded Hugo Ch\u00e1vez after his death from cancer. Widely believed to have stolen last year\u2019s presidential election, Maduro has clung to power after launching a wave of repression that forced Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, the apparent winner of the 2024 vote, into exile in Spain.<\/p>\n

Since August, the US has put a $50m bounty<\/a> on Maduro\u2019s head, launched the biggest naval deployment<\/a> in the Caribbean Sea since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis<\/a>, and carried out a series of deadly airstrikes<\/a> on alleged drug boats that have killed more than 80 people.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The aircraft flew just north<\/a> of Maracaibo, one of Venezuela\u2019s most populous cities.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s most important backer, the opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was awarded the Nobel peace prize for her \u201ctireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a peaceful and just transition from dictatorship to democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Machado\u2019s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the prize<\/a>, telling a ceremony in Oslo that her mother\u2019s struggle to end years of \u201cobscene corruption\u201d and \u201cbrutal dictatorship\u201d would go on.<\/p>\n

Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest proven reserves of oil and, although years of mismanagement and corruption have done severe damage to its oil industry, oil exports remain Venezuela\u2019s main source of revenue. The main customer is China.<\/p>\n

The objective of this week\u2019s reported tanker seizure was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

In an interview last week, Joe Biden\u2019s former chief Latin America adviser, Juan Gonz\u00e1lez, said that at around the time of last year\u2019s election he had pushed for the US to station two navy destroyers off Venezuela\u2019s coast \u201cand even impose an oil blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n

That never happened, but Gonz\u00e1lez believed one possible way out of the current crisis might be for the Trump administration to push Maduro into accepting a recall referendum, perhaps in 2027, but threatening \u201creal hardline consequences\u201d such as a blockade if the result was not respected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is potentially a viable option where there should be a very credible and aggressive snapback associated with it,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said, adding: \u201cImposing an oil blockade would shut down the entire economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s less aggressive [than a land strike] but it\u2019s still considered an act of war,\u201d added Gonz\u00e1lez, who was the national security council\u2019s senior director for the western hemisphere during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Trump] could take unilateral action by blocking oil tankers from leaving or entering the country, and that I think would precipitate Maduro\u2019s departure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-185948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}