{"id":341830,"date":"2025-12-10T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341830\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:03:09","slug":"follow-live-us-seizes-oil-tanker-near-venezuela-trump-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/341830\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow live: US seizes oil tanker near Venezuela, Trump says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Venezuela speculates over goal of US actionpublished at 21:56 GMT<\/p>\n<p>21:56 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-8kvzjk-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/b66a51d3-6f1b-48cd-b517-7adce4bbca7a.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Ione Wells<br \/>South America correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While the US has always claimed its military build-up in the<br \/>\nCaribbean is about tackling drug-trafficking, there has been much speculation<br \/>\nabout what other potential goals it may have.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Many analysts say it is about putting<br \/>\nmilitary pressure on Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro to resign, while the Venezuelan government has accused the US of trying to grab<br \/>\nVenezuelan oil reserves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This is a view shared by some in the region too. A Venezuelan<br \/>\nman in Caracas told the BBC on Tuesday that while he was not a fan of the<br \/>\nVenezuelan government, he believed the US was &#8220;coming for the gold, for the<br \/>\ncountry&#8217;s riches, the oil&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While a tanker being seized \u2013 often because of sanction violations \u2013 is not unprecedented, this latest US move may further fuel the Venezuelan<br \/>\ngovernment&#8217;s argument. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are widespread<br \/>\nsanctions on Venezuelan oil, although some companies are exempt. The US company Chevron operates in the country and drills in<br \/>\nmany parts of Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It pays the government with some of the oil it<br \/>\nproduces alongside the state oil company, PDVSA, via joint ventures between the<br \/>\ncompanies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The US has given Chevron a license to exempt it from<br \/>\nsanctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela speculates over goal of US actionpublished at 21:56 GMT 21:56 GMT Ione WellsSouth America correspondent While the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-341830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}