The U.S. Coast Guard is currently interdicting a sanctioned vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters of the Caribbean Sea, according to three U.S. officials.
No further details were available as to the name of the ship or where exactly the operation is taking place.
This is the second sanctioned vessel seized by the United States. On Dec. 10, an elite U.S. Coast Guard tactical operations team, with the support of U.S. Navy helicopters, boarded and seized The Skipper, an oil tanker sanctioned for being part of an illicit oil operation involving Venezuela.
Reuters was first to report that a second sanctioned vessel is currently being seized by the Coast Guard.
President Donald Trump threatened this week to impose a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela, ratcheting up American pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his social media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”
Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change. “This will just not happen, never, never, never — Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, never,” he said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
