The US Department of War said on Tuesday that its forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that it tracked from the Caribbean, marking the third such incident.
According to The Associated Press, the ship, named the “Bertha,” was one of the tankers that left Venezuela following the January 3 US attack on the country to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“Three boats ran, and now all three have been captured,” the DoW said in a post on X. “Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Bertha without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.”
A US official told the AP that the boat has not been “placed under US control” and that its fate will be determined by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. The US has interdicted a total of 10 oil tankers since it first began seizing Venezuelan-linked tankers in December. The Pentagon said the Berth had violated President Trump’s “quarantine” in the Caribbean.
“From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it. No other nation has the global reach, endurance, or will to enforce sanctions at this distance,” the DoW said.
Since the attack on Venezuela, the US has been controlling Venezuela’s oil trade and imposing a ramped-up oil embargo on Cuba, causing mass fuel shortages and a humanitarian crisis, in an apparent attempt to bring about regime change in Havana.
