US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid mounting tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
It is the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Advertisement
Trump said “other things are happening”, but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later.
The seizure was carried led by the US coastguard and supported by the Navy, according to a US official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A day earlier, the US military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace since the start of the administration’s pressure campaign.