U.S. on Verge of Seizing Third Oil Tanker Near Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions Between Trump and Maduro

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The U.S. Coast Guard is on the brink of seizing its third oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, a further escalation in the tension between President Donald Trump’s administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

An anonymous U.S. official confirmed the operation to Reuters on Sunday afternoon.

“The United States coast guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” the official told Reuters. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”

Details, including the location and name of the vessel under pursuit, have not yet been released.

If successful, today’s operation marks the third in less than two weeks and second this weekend after a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil was seized en route to Asia on Saturday.

The vessel seizures form part of Trump’s pressure campaign against Maduro. Just last week, Trump announced “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela” via a post on Truth Social.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote in the post. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

So far, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have conducted more than 25 strikes in international waters near Venezuela, killing at least 140 “narco-terrorists” running suspected drug boats into the United States.

Maduro has condemned Trump’s actions and the growing U.S. naval presence near Venezuela.

“It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth,” Maduro said during a speech in Caracas on Wednesday. “The truth has been revealed.”

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