The Venezuelan government stated in a statement that the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela by United States forces “constitutes flagrant theft and an act of international piracy.”
He continued: “Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed… It’s always been about our natural resources“, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
Video
This is how the United States seized the Venezuelan oil ship
Previously, at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged citizens to act like “warriors” and be prepared for “break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary“.
US forces seized the tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against the South American country’s dictator.
Trump confirmed the operation on Wednesday, declaring: “We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela; a large, very large oil tanker, in fact, the largest ever seized.”
“It was seized for a very good reason,” the US president added, refusing to reveal the identity of the ship’s owner.
Trump announces the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela
US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter.
From his X account, the Venezuelan leader opposed to the Nicolas Maduro regime, Carlos Paparoni, assured that it is the AZURE bouquet. “A ship that left Venezuela with the intention of place oil on the international black marketevading controls, sanctions and using routes associated with criminal networks that operate alongside the Nicolás Maduro regime,” he said.
However, according to maritime records, the Azure (IMO 9387255) – a crude oil tanker – with a high risk of sanctions linked to Russia and several name and flag changes, is currently in East Asia.
CNN identified the seized ship as Skipper, part of the “dark fleet,” sanctioned for transporting crude oil from Iran and had recently loaded Venezuelan crude oil. bound for Cuba.
Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he succeeded Hugo Chávez after his death from cancer. Widely considered as the person responsible for having manipulated last year’s presidential electionsMaduro has clung to power after unleashing a wave of repression that forced Edmundo González, the apparent winner of the 2024 elections, into exile in Spain.
Since August, United States has offered a reward of 50 million dollars led by Maduro, has launched the largest naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and has carried out a series of deadly air attacks against suspected drug ships that have killed more than 80 people.
On Tuesday, two American fighter jets They flew over the Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The aircraft flew just north of Maracaibo, one of the most populated cities in Venezuela.
On Wednesday, opposition leader María Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize for her “tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and for her fight to achieve a peaceful and fair transition from dictatorship to democracy.”