The US seized another oil tanker off Venezuela on Saturday, a move Caracas deemed a “theft and kidnapping,” in the latest salvo of a pressure campaign by Washington, the US government said.
It was the second time in two weeks that US forces have interdicted a tanker in the region, and comes days after US President Donald Trump announced a blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” heading to and leaving Venezuela.
“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on social media.
Photo: DHS/Handout via REUTERS
The post was accompanied by a nearly eight-minute video of aerial footage that showed a helicopter hovering just above the deck of a large tanker at sea.
Caracas slammed the seizure as theft and kidnapping, saying that “those responsible for these serious events will answer to justice and to history for their criminal conduct.”
A post from the US Department of Homeland Security identified the vessel as the Centuries and said it was “suspected of carrying oil subject to US sanctions.”
Centuries is a Chinese-owned, Panama-flagged oil tanker, according to TankerTrackers, an online service monitoring oil shipments and storage.
It said that Centuries loaded 1.8 million barrels of crude oil at a Venezuelan port earlier this month before being escorted out of Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone on Thursday last week. The VesselFinder database also listed the ship’s last recorded location as off the Venezuelan coast.
An AFP review found that Centuries does not appear on the US Department of the Treasury’s list of sanctioned companies and individuals.
White House deputy spokeswoman Anna Kelly wrote on social media that the tanker “contained sanctioned PDVSA oil,” in reference to Venezuela’s state oil company, and charged the ship as being “a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet.”
On Dec. 10, US forces seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which the US attorney general said was involved in carrying sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran.
The US has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean with the stated goal of combating Latin American drug trafficking, taking particular aim at Venezuela.
Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez voiced defiance in comments at a public event in Caracas broadcast Saturday on state TV — although he made no mention of the interdicted ship.
“We are waging a battle against lies, manipulation, interference, military threats, and psychological warfare,” he said, adding that it “will not intimidate us.”
There are currently 11 US warships in the Caribbean: the world’s largest aircraft carrier, an amphibious assault ship, two amphibious transport dock ships, two cruisers and five destroyers.
Caracas views the operation as a campaign to push out Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — whom Washington and many nations view as an illegitimate president — and to “steal” Venezuelan oil.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
‘ILLEGAL RULING’: The KMT and the TPP slammed the Constitutional Court judgement, saying it contravened the law and was trying to clear the way for a ‘green dictatorship’ The Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed by the Legislative Yuan last year are unconstitutional, as they contravene due legislative process and separation of powers. The Legislative Yuan on Dec. 20 last year passed amendments stipulating that no fewer than 10 grand justices must take part in deliberations of the Constitutional Court, and at least nine grand justices must agree to declare a law unconstitutional. The Executive Yuan on Jan. 2 requested that lawmakers reconsider the bill, but the Legislative Yuan, under a combined majority of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party
RSS