The US Coast Guard on Saturday evening (local time) conducted a "lightning strike operation" on the Centuries (IMO: 9206310), a non-sanctioned oil tanker, off the Venezuelan coast.
This is the second time that the US has gone after a tanker near Venezuelan waters after tensions rose between US President Donald Trump and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, over the seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker less than two weeks ago.
Both tankers were reportedly headed to Asia.
According to Homeland Security, the Panama-flagged tanker—which had last docked in Venezuela—was seized because it was "suspected of carrying oil subject to US sanctions".
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly added that the Centuries was "falsely-flagged", and that it contained "sanctioned PDVSA oil". Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is a state-owned oil and natural gas facility.
Kelly's claim that the Centuries was "falsely-flagged" came in response to a New York Times report which pointed out that the oil tanker was not part of the US Treasury Department's list of sanctioned vessels.
The report added that the cargo belonged to an established China-based oil trader with a history of exporting Venezuelan crude oil to Chinese refineries.
"The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.
She also posted visuals of the seizure operation, which show the US forces rappelling onboard the tanker to seize it.
However, the report claimed, citing an official, that the US forces did not have a warrant to take possession of the Centuries—just as they did not have one in the case of the first oil tanker as well.
In that regard, earlier this week, US President Donald Trump's own comments on Venezuela taking away "all of our energy rights" and "all of our oil" led to him enforcing a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
This had led the Maduro administration to use Venezuela's navy to guard its oil tankers, defying one of the largest US fleets stationed in the region in recent years.
This led to Trump and his advisers declaring that open conflict with Caracas was still on the table.
“I don’t rule it out, no,” he had told NBC News.
Criticising the second seizure, the Venezuelan government has again called it "theft and kidnapping", and said that it would not "go unpunished", as per a BBC News report.
It now aims to file a complaint with the UN Security Council and "other multilateral agencies and the governments of the world".
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