A Venezuela-linked tanker was seized by the U.S. military in the Caribbean on Tuesday, marking the seventh such incident since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s month-long campaign to disrupt Venezuela’s oil shipments.
The Motor Vessel Sagitta was apprehended “without incident” by the U.S. military’s Southern Command, which is currently overseeing a significant naval presence in the region, including nearly a dozen warships and thousands of troops.
In a statement, the Southern Command asserted: “The apprehension of another tanker operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully.”
Trump has consistently focused his Latin American foreign policy on Venezuela, initially aiming to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power. Following a failure to achieve a diplomatic resolution, Trump previously ordered U.S. forces to attempt to seize Maduro and his wife in a daring overnight raid on January 3.
Since then, Trump has said the U.S. plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion plan.
The vessels intercepted in the past have been either under U.S. sanctions or part of a “shadow fleet” of ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers — Iran, Russia or Venezuela.
