Updated on December 10 at 5:34 pm EST
President Trump said on Wednesday that US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking the latest US escalation in its push toward a regime change war aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” the president said during an event at the White House. “A large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized, actually, and other things are happening.”
Trump didn’t offer any details about the operation, but US officials told The New York Times that the seizure was conducted by the US Coast Guard. The officials said the seizure came after “deliberate planning” and that there was no resistance from the crew or any casualties as a result of the military operation.
Later in the day, US Attorney General Pam Bondi released footage of the seizure and claimed the tanker was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
Bondi didn’t specify the ship’s name, the flag it was flying, or the country its owners are based in. The US seizure came about a month after the US military condemned Iran for seizing a tanker off its own coast that it claimed was smuggling fuel, an action US Central Command called “illegal.”
The US maintains oil sanctions on Venezuela, and proponents of a regime change war have pointed to the country’s vast oil resources as a reason to attack.
“Venezuela, for those Americans who do not understand why we need to go in … Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity,” Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) said last month.
The US escalation against Venezuela came a day after the US flew two Navy F/A-18 fighter jets deep into the Gulf of Venezuela, marking what appeared to be the closest US flight to the country’s coast since the major US military buildup began in the Caribbean a few months ago.
