USA Venezuela condemns storming of oil tanker by US soldiers
The Venezuelan government has strongly condemned the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of the South American country by the US military. The armed operation was "a brazen robbery and an act of international piracy", railed the Foreign Ministry in Caracas. US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI chief Kash Patel had justified the extraordinary operation by claiming that the ship was part of an illegal oil transport network intended to support foreign terrorist organizations.
11.12.2025, 02:22
11.12.2025, 07:40
SDA
The tanker was the largest ever seized, said US President Donald Trump. He announced that other things would also happen, but did not give any details.
Warships, fighter jets and soldiers
With the seizure of the oil tanker, tensions between the two countries have reached a new level of escalation. In recent months, the US military has repeatedly sunk speedboats in the Caribbean that were allegedly loaded with drugs. The USA has also assembled a powerful force of fighter planes, soldiers and warships in the region, including the world's largest aircraft carrier.
Venezuela has huge oil reserves, is heavily dependent on export revenues and supplies its oil primarily to US rival China. The authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro accuses the Trump administration of targeting these natural resources in particular in the escalation of the conflict and wanting to force a change of power in Caracas.
"Now the real reasons for the ongoing aggression against Venezuela are becoming clear. It's not about migration. It's not about drug trafficking. It's not about democracy. It's not about human rights," said the statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. "It's always about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people."
What was the tanker used for?
The tanker was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran, US Attorney General Bondi wrote on Platform X. FBI chief Patel, on the other hand, claimed that the tanker had been used to deliver oil from Venezuela to Iran.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed Coast Guard official, reported that the ship was sailing under the name "Skipper" and was carrying oil from the Venezuelan state oil company. It had previously been associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil.
Soldiers abseil onto ship
Bondi and Patel published a video showing the spectacular action. It shows a tanker being approached by a helicopter. Soldiers abseil down to the deck of the tanker and secure the ship with their weapons drawn. Nothing can be seen of the crew.
It was initially unclear where the ship was headed and under which flag it was sailing in view of the contradictory information from the USA. According to Bondi, the Coast Guard, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were involved in the takeover of the tanker, with support from the Pentagon, which has since been dubbed the "War Department".
Trump: Maduro's days are numbered
Trump has been gradually escalating the conflict with Venezuela for months. His government justifies the use of military force as a necessary means in the fight against organized drug crime and drug-smuggling "terrorists" who pose a threat to the US population. In the view of UN human rights experts, Trump's government is thus violating international law.
The US President also authorized covert operations by the CIA foreign intelligence service in Venezuela and repeatedly emphasized that he would not rule out operations on land. Most recently, in an interview with the news portal "Politico", he replied to a question about a possible American ground invasion by saying that he neither wanted to confirm nor rule out anything.
Trump also refused to answer the question of how far he would go to force President Maduro out of office. However, he emphasized: "His days are numbered." The US president accused Maduro of treating the Venezuelan people "terribly".
