Venezuela's Fury Over Tanker Seizure: US Aims to Seize Oil

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After provocative US actions, Caracas accuses Washington of "brazen theft" and "international piracy."

11.12.25

The Venezuelan government yesterday accused the US of "brazen theft" and "international piracy," following the seizure of an oil tanker by US armed forces as part of their deployment in the Caribbean, in a statement released by Foreign Minister Ivan Gil.

Caracas "strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes brazen theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the US President (Donald Trump), who confessed to the attack on an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea," according to the text.

The statement emphasizes that with this "criminal act," US President Trump confirms that "the goal has always been to seize Venezuela's oil without paying anything" and that "his aggressive policy towards our country is part of (...) a plan to strip us of our energy wealth."

US President Trump announced earlier that "we just seized an oil tanker off Venezuela, a large oil tanker, the largest ever seized," without providing details about the vessel, its owner, or its destination.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi later stated via X that the ship was carrying sanctioned oil, originating "from Venezuela and Iran."

She referred to an operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with "support" from the Department of Defense, releasing a video showing armed military personnel boarding the deck and threatening the crew on the bridge with rifles.

The seizure of the tanker — according to a CBS News reporter, it is the vessel The Skipper, which has been sanctioned since 2022 due to its alleged ties to Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah — occurred as Washington, officially as part of an operation to combat drug trafficking, continuously reinforces its deployed forces in the Caribbean and continues to launch strikes against speedboats that it claims are carrying illegal substances since September.

Venezuela's main resource is crude oil, on which the US imposed an embargo in 2019.

Caracas was thus forced to sell a large part of its production on the black market, at much lower prices, especially to buyers who then sell it to China.

The seizure of the tanker is expected to hit these exports, discouraging potential buyers.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stressed yesterday, during a demonstration organized on the same day as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for opposition leader María Corina Machado, that "we demand (...) an end to the illegal and barbaric US interference in Venezuela and Latin America."