File photo of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast
The US has seized an oil tanker that had recently departed from Venezuela, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
It is the second time this month that an oil-carrying ship has been seized off the country’s coast.
The move comes after President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was ordering a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
Venezuela has described the latest US move as “theft and kidnapping”.
It has previously accused the Trump administration of trying to steal its resources.
“These acts will not go unpunished,” a statement from the Venezuelan government said, adding that it intended to file a complaint with the UN Security Council and “other multilateral agencies and the governments of the world.”
The operation was led by the US Coast Guard, similar to the operation earlier this month. The ship was boarded by a specialised tactical team, and was in international waters when it was taken.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees the Coast Guard, shared a seven-minute video of the operation on X.
It shows US helicopters landing on the deck of a ship with the name Centuries written on the side.
It is a Panamanian-flagged ship, but in the past five years it has also sailed under the flags of Greece and Liberia, according to records seen by BBC Verify.
It is not on the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned vessels.
In recent weeks, the US has been building up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea and has carried out deadly strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats, killing around 100 people.
It has provided no public evidence that these vessels were carrying drugs, and the military has come under increasing scrutiny from Congress over the strikes.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading a designated-terrorist organisation called Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.
Trump has accused Maduro’s government of using “stolen” oil to “finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping.”
Following the seizure of the second ship, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the US would continue to “unflinchingly conduct maritime interdiction operations… to dismantle illicit criminal networks.”
“Violence, drugs, and chaos will not control the Western Hemisphere.”
Venezuela – which is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves – is highly dependent on revenues from its oil exports to finance its government spending.
Trump’s announcement of a blockade came less than a week after the US seized an oil tanker believed to be part of the “ghost fleet” off the coast of Venezuela, which allegedly used various strategies to conceal its work.
Venezuela’s government decried the move, with Maduro saying the US “kidnapped the crew” and “stole” the ship.
