War Department officials said Monday that U.S. military forces seized a Venezuela-linked oil tanker that Indo-Pacific Command tracked down from the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean.
“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the War Department posted on X. “It ran, and we followed. The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain.”
The seizure was part of an effort to enforce sanctions put in place by President Donald Trump to quarantine vessels transporting oil to or from Venezuela, according to the War Department.
Monday’s operation marks the eighth such action to take hold of a Venezuela-linked oil vessel.
“The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain,” the War Department posted.
The vessel was traveling under a Panamanian flag and reportedly departed from Venezuela in January carrying roughly 700,000 barrels of crude oil bound for China.
Under Trump’s “quarantine” policy, all Venezuelan oil exports must be coordinated through “proper and lawful” channels to prevent the circumvention of international economic sanctions.
A video posted on X shows U.S. forces fast-roping onto the Aquila II as crew members are corralled to one side of the ship. Additional photos show a sniper observing the tanker from a helicopter.
The tanker seizure comes amid heightened tensions surrounding Venezuela’s fragile political landscape. Juan Pablo Guanipa, a politician and close ally of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, was taken by armed men in Caracas less than a day after his release from prison.
While much of former dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime has crumbled since his capture by U.S. forces earlier this year, his former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has taken power, though under immense restrictions.
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Guanipa’s allies have said they will hold Rodriguez accountable for any harm done to the politician.
“We call on the international community for the immediate release of Juan Pablo Guanipa and for an immediate and unconditional end to the persecution of the opposition,” Justice First posted on X. “Venezuela is determined to change and yearns for justice.”
