US forces stop oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as Trump follows up on promise to seize tankers

WASHINGTON — U.S. forces on Saturday stopped an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela for the second time in less than two weeks as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The pre-dawn operation comes days after Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country and follows the Dec. 10 seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard with help from the Defense Department stopped the oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. She also posted on social media an unclassified video of a U.S helicopter landing personnel on a vessel called Centuries. A crude oil tanker flying under the flag of Panama operates under the name and was recently spotted near the Venezuelan coast, according to MarineTraffic, a project that tracks the movement of vessels around the globe using publicly available data. It was not immediately clear if the vessel was under U.S. sanctions. “The United SWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times