The US Coast Guard is pursuing another oil tanker near Venezuela, a source said, as the Trump administration continues its pressure campaign against Maduro.
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The US Coast Guard on Sunday was pursuing another oil tanker in international waters, a US official told CBS News, as the Trump administration appears to be intensifying its targeting of such vessels linked to the Venezuelan government.
In pursuit of the ship, off the coast of Venezuela, it is second such performance this weekend and the third time in less than a week.
A U.S. official told CBS News that Sunday’s pursuit involved a “sanctioned black frigate that is part of an illegal sanctions-busting operation in Venezuela.”
“It’s flying a false flag and under the jurisdiction of the seizure,” they said.
The coast guard pursuit of the ship was first reported by Reuters. U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters did not provide a specific location of the operation or the name of the vessel being operated.
In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, the US Coast Guard intercepted a Panamanian-flagged vessel called the Hundreds. A US official told CBS News that the ship’s shutdown followed a playbook similar to the US’s seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said on social media Saturday that the vessel was “a false flag vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan fleet to transport stolen oil and support the narcoterrorist Maduro regime.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Venezuelan government condemned the seizure of the vessel, calling it “a heinous act of crime.”
“The colonial model that the US government wants to implement with these practices will fail and be defeated by the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.
It added that “these actions will not go unpunished,” and that Venezuela “will use all appropriate measures, including a complaint to the United Nations Security Council, other international organizations and world governments.”
President Trump last week called for a “complete and total embargo” on all oil tankers allowed to enter or leave Venezuela. It is part of an ongoing campaign of pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Last week, sources told CBS News that the US military also they seized a 20-year-old oil tanker which had just left port in Venezuela.
Kevin Hasset, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said Sunday “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan“The first two oil trucks seized were operating in the black market and supplying oil to countries under sanctions.
“And so I don’t think people need to worry here in the US that prices are going to go up because of these seizures,” he added. “There are quite a few of them, and they were black market ships.”
The guidance of the tankers comes as Mr. Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to carry out a series of attacks on ships in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean that his administration suspects of smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs to the US At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since the beginning of September.
