tanker

Mexico City, Mexico, December 11, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela accused the United States of committing “international piracy” after US authorities seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean, denouncing the action as part of a long-running US campaign to strip the country of its energy resources.

US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Washington seized an oil tanker sanctioned by the US off Venezuela’s coast. He described the vessel as the largest oil tanker ever seized and indicated that the United States would retain the crude aboard. 

The move was met with a sharp rebuke from Caracas.

“The Bolivarian Government will appeal to all existing international bodies to denounce this grave international crime and will defend its sovereignty with absolute determination,” read the communiqué. “Venezuela will not allow any foreign power to take from the Venezuelan people what belongs to them by historical and constitutional right.”

According to Reuters, the “Skipper” tanker loaded an estimated 1.8 million barrels of crude at Venezuela’s José terminal early this month before unloading 200,000 to a Cuba-bound ship. The remaining cargo was believed to be destined for Asian markets. The move was viewed as aggression against Cuba as well, which relies on Venezuelan oil shipments for energy and income.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla condemned “the vile act of piracy” as a violation of international law.

Michael Galant, member of the Progressive International Secretariat, said that calling the US seizure an act of piracy fell short.

“This is the deliberate immiseration of the Cuban people, already suffering debilitating fuel shortages, blackouts, and a chikungunya outbreak thanks to the US blockade,” wrote Galant on social media.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a video on social media on Wednesday evening showing armed US forces boarding the vessel. There was reportedly no resistance from the crew nor any casualties. The assault involved Coast Guard members, Marines, and special forces who were seen in the video descending from helicopters onto the ship’s deck.

The seizure of the tanker comes only days after Delaware District Judge Leonard P. Stark approved the sale of Venezuela’s US-based refiner CITGO to Amber Energy, a process that Venezuela called a “barbaric theft” of a Venezuelan asset via a “fraudulent process.” 

In past years, the United States has intercepted shipments of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela, ultimately taking control of the gasoline and selling it at auction. While US-led sanctions have created significant challenges for the sale of Venezuelan oil on international markets, Wednesday’s seizure marks the first time the US has directly impeded a crude shipment of from Venezuela. Reuters reported that buyers in Asia were demanding further discounts on Venezuelan crude as a result of the seizure.

Trump’s latest move is a significant escalation in the latest US effort to oust the Nicolás Maduro government from power. Since September, the US has built up its forces in the region, including the mobilization of the Gerard Ford Carrier Fleet, and has carried out deadly strikes on boats that the administration claims are tied to drug trafficking. 

Washington’s decision to seize the tanker drew scrutiny from US lawmakers who have questioned the true intentions behind military mobilization and campaign in the Caribbean.

“If Trump’s aggression in the Caribbean is about drugs, why did he just seize an oil tanker?” asked US Representative Nydia Velázquez. “This is yet another dangerous escalation that brings us closer to a regime change war.”

Senator Mark Warner, who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, questioned how the US was able to seize an oil tanker but has opted to strike alleged drug smuggling boats from the skies without an effort to arrest the occupants or seize the purported contraband. 

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen spoke Wednesday on the floor of Congress to call on lawmakers to stop Trump’s ”regime change war” against Venezuela.

Caracas maintains that the US attacks are motivated by a desire for regime change in order to secure access to Venezuela’s natural resources.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, speaking from Oslo where she traveled to receive her Nobel Peace Prize, publicly endorsed the seizure of the tanker as a “very necessary step.”

Juan González, Joe Biden’s former chief Latin America adviser and the architect behind the former president’s Venezuela policy, said that a US Naval blockade was “potentially a viable option” despite admitting that it would constitute an act of war against Venezuela.

The White House has repeatedly threatened further escalation, including land strikes. The New York Times reported that US officials expected additional seizures in the coming weeks. This action would constitute an act of force and place additional pressure against Venezuela’s oil industry.

The United Nations (UN) Charter expressly prohibits all Member States from using or threatening force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state. Blockades imposed without a declaration of war or that are not sanctioned by the UN Security Council are not considered legal. Likewise, UN independent experts have consistently maintained that the extraterritorial application of unilateral sanctions is contrary to international law.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Dec. 21 (UPI) — The U.S. Coast Guard is chasing down a third foreign oil tanker in the Caribbean, which refused to be boarded amid President Donald Trump‘s pressure campaign against Venezuela, reports said Sunday.

“The U.S. Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” an unnamed official told NBC News. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”

The tanker Bella 1 was placed under U.S. sanctions in June 2024 under counterterrorism authorities, according to the Treasury Department, which said the vessel was part of a shipping network linked to Sa’id al-Jamal, a U.S.-designated Houthi financial facilitator.

Vessels in that network have been used to transport sanctioned oil, including Iranian crude, and the proceeds are directed to militant groups, U.S. officials have said in describing the basis for the sanctions.

Separately, U.S. officials said federal authorities obtained a seizure warrant from a magistrate judge authorizing them to take possession of the Bella 1, The New York Times reported. Officials cited Bella 1’s alleged prior involvement in the Iranian oil trade rather than any alleged links to Venezuela.

The ship was allegedly not flying a valid national flag when U.S. forces approached it, which would allow for it to be boarded at sea under international law. But the ship refused to be boarded and continued sailing, one official told The New York Times as another called it “an active pursuit.”

If seized, the Bella 1 would become the third tanker apprehended by U.S. authorities. On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard seized another tanker in international waters near Venezuela after Trump declared a blockade of Venezuela.

That tanker was flying a Panamanian flag and was carrying Venezuelan oil that it expected to sell in Asia, officials alleged.

Last Wednesday, a sanctioned oil tanker called The Skipper was also seized after it left a Venezuelan port. The ship was diverted to Texas and was allegedly flying the flag of Venezuela’s neighbor, Guyana, which said the ship is not among those registered there.

The US Coast Guard is in “active pursuit” of another vessel in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region continue to escalate.

US authorities have already seized two oil tankers this month – one of them on Saturday.

Sunday’s pursuit related to a “sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion”, a US official said. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”

Washington has accused Venezuela of using oil money to fund drug-related crime, while Venezuela has described the tanker seizures as “theft and kidnapping”.

US President Donald Trump last week ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the country.

Venezuela – home to the world largest proven oil reserves – has accused the Trump administration of trying to steal its resources.

US authorities have not yet officially confirmed Sunday’s pursuit, and the exact location and name of the tanker involved is not yet known.

As of last week, more than 30 of the 80 ships in Venezuelan waters or approaching the country were under US sanctions, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com.

Saturday’s seizure saw a Panamanian-flagged tanker boarded by a specialised tactical team in international waters.

That ship is not on the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned vessels, but the US has said it was carrying “sanctioned PDVSA oil”. In the past five years the ship also sailed under the flags of Greece and Liberia, according to records seen by BBC Verify.

“These acts will not go unpunished,” the Venezuelan government said in response to Saturday’s incident. It added that it intended to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council and “other multilateral agencies and the governments of the world”.

Venezuela is highly dependent on revenues from its oil exports to finance its government spending.

In recent weeks, the US has built up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea and has carried out deadly strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats, killing around 100 people.

Sanctions also were placed on some of President Maduro’s relatives and on businesses associated with what the US calls his illegitimate regime.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday: “It is clear that the current status quo with the Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States.”

He added that the goal of the Trump administration is to change that dynamic.

His comments were criticised by Venezuela’s foreign minister who accused Rubio dragging the US down the path of “regime changes”.

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.

The vessel was flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order, according to US officials cited by US media.

The United States is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, US media reported, in what would be the second such operation in two days and the third in less than two weeks.

“The United States Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” a US official told the Reuters news agency on Sunday.

“It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”

Another official told the agency that the tanker was under sanctions, but added that it had not been boarded so far and that interceptions can take different forms – including sailing or flying close to vessels of concern.

The officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, did not give a specific location for the operation or name the vessel being pursued.

The pursuit of the tanker was also reported by The Associated Press news agency, which cited an official briefed on the operation separately.

The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sunday’s pursuit involved “a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”

The official also said that the vessel was flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.

Two tankers seized

The pursuit comes after the US seized an oil tanker off Venezuela on Saturday as part of a “blockade” ordered by US President Donald Trump.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Saturday that the coastguard apprehended the vessel with support from the Pentagon.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” she wrote.

“We will find you, and we will stop you,” she added.

The operation marked the second time in recent weeks that the US has seized a tanker near Venezuela, and it comes amid a large US military build-up in the region.

Trump, whose administration has continued to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, ordered on Tuesday a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the South American country.

Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has also included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American nation. At least 100 people have been killed in the attacks.

The two oil tankers that were seized were operating on the black market and providing oil to countries under sanctions, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said in a TV interview on Sunday.

Dec. 20 (UPI) — The U.S. Coast Guard led another seizure of an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela on Saturday after President Donald Trump declared a blockade of Venezuela.

The U.S. Navy and other federal entities participated in the seizure of the oil tanker, which is not among those sanctioned by the federal government, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News and CNN reported.

Armed U.S. personnel on military helicopters descended onto the tanker’s deck during the early morning hours on Saturday and seized it, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said in a social media post.

No one aboard the oil tanker resisted, and the United States seized it for carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

The seized tanker displayed a Panamanian flag and was carrying Venezuelan oil that it was to offload in Asia.

Much of Venezuela’s oil is shipped to China, which has privately owned teapot refineries that often buy and refine illicit oil from Venezuela, Iran and other sanctioned nations.

The president on Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers as they enter or leave Venezuelan waters.

Saturday’s raid shows the blockade could affect any vessel that carries Venezuelan oil, as affirmed by Noem.

The United States on Wednesday seized a sanctioned oil tanker after it departed a Venezuelan port and diverted it to Texas, where Trump said the United States could keep the oil in its hold.

That tanker, The Skipper, was flying the flag of Venezuela’s neighbor, Guyana, officials for which said the vessel is not among those registered there.

Such activities are typical of a shadow fleet that uses deceptive tactics to hide where respective vessels are located and transport illicit oil, which often benefits Iran, Russia and other sanctioned states.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government called The Skipper’s seizure an act of “piracy” and “robbery” and said the blockade is a “grotesque threat” that violates international law, according to CBS News.

Maduro’s regime accuses the United States of trying to “appropriate the oil, land and minerals of the country through gigantic campaigns of lies and manipulations.”

The blockade and tanker seizures are in addition to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats carrying illicit drugs destined for the United States and Europe.

Both tactics are efforts to isolate the Maduro regime, which Trump seeks to force out of power by depriving it of its primary revenue sources.

In a significant escalation of the ‘tanker war’ between Russia and Ukraine, which has so far played out mainly in the Black Sea, Ukrainian aerial drones have struck a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’ in the Mediterranean. The latest incident comes after a tit-for-tat series of attacks, and a warning earlier this month from Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would “cut Ukraine off from the sea” in response to Kyiv stepping up its campaign against Russian commercial shipping. 

A source from within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the government’s main internal security agency, told TWZ that “a new, unprecedented special operation” was carried out “more than 2,000 kilometers” (1,243 miles) from Ukrainian territory.

The target was the Oman-flagged crude oil tanker Qendil, empty at the time of the attack and sailing from the Indian port of Jamnagar, where it had been unloaded on December 1.

“Accordingly, this attack did not pose any threat to the ecological situation in the region,” the SBU said.

Before unloading, the tanker had left Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on November 4, sailing through the Bosphorus and Mediterranean, then passing the Suez Canal en route to India. The vessel was built in 2006 and has a capacity of 115,338 deadweight tonnes.

According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel tracking, the attack likely occurred when the tanker was heading west in the Mediterranean between Malta and Crete, which would put it around 930 miles from Ukraine. According to AIS data, the vessel made a U-turn immediately before midnight and then turned toward the east, for unknown reasons, changing its destination to Port Said in Egypt.

The SBU explained that aerial drones were used as part of a “multi-stage” operation that was conducted by forces from its Special Group “Alpha.” The same group was responsible for yesterday’s aerial drone attack on Belbek Air Base in Crimea, which you can read more about here.

The SBU shared a video with us that purports to show the attack on the tanker. Here, munitions can be seen dropped onto the deck from a hexacopter-type aerial drone, indicating a short-range attack, with ‘bomber drones’ likely having been launched from a nearby vessel. The launch of these drones from a neighboring country would only be possible if the target was half a dozen or so miles off the coast.

The SBU claims that the tanker “suffered critical damage and cannot be used for its intended purpose.” The video evidence suggests that damage was inflicted on the tanker’s topside infrastructure, although it’s unclear how severe this was.

“Russia used this tanker to circumvent sanctions and earn money that went to the war against Ukraine,” the agency added in a statement. “Therefore, from the point of view of international law and the laws and customs of war, this is an absolutely legitimate target for the SBU. The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike it anywhere in the world, wherever it may be.”

In a statement, the security firm Vanguard said that the attack reflected “a stark expansion of Ukraine’s use of uncrewed aerial systems against maritime assets associated with Russia’s sanctioned oil export network.”

The EU and the United Kingdom sanction Qendil, since it is considered part of the shadow fleet, a term for vessels used by Russia (as well as by Iran and Venezuela) to evade sanctions with deceptive practices. These include changing flags and complex chains of ownership, often using shell companies.

It might not be a coincidence that the attack took place on the day of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year press conference. During this, Putin said that Russia would respond to recent Ukrainian attacks on shadow fleet tankers.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has relied heavily on the shadow fleet, estimated to number more than 1,000 ships, to circumvent sanctions and export crude oil, bringing much-needed revenue.

Putin said today that Russia would “definitely respond” to Ukraine’s campaign against its shadow fleet. “Ultimately, this will not lead to the expected result,” he said. “It will not disrupt any supplies, but will only create additional threats,” Putin added.

Ukraine has previously used drone strikes to target Russian shadow tankers in the Black Sea.

As we have previously reported, Ukraine carried out three attacks on Russian-connected oil tankers in the Black Sea in late November and early December. This campaign has drawn a response in kind from Russia, using a Shahed-type drone, as you can read about here.

Ukraine’s SBU security service says its Sea Baby naval drones today struck another Russian “shadow fleet” tanker in the Black Sea.

Video from an SBU source purports to show the oil tanker “Dashan” being hit by the attack drone and explosions in the stern area. “The vessel,… pic.twitter.com/mtfBqYe1gQ

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 10, 2025

However, the first confirmed Ukrainian strike on a Russian-linked vessel this far from the Black Sea theater is a significant development. It is highly likely that the clandestine anti-ship war waged between Iran and Israel — something we have reported on for years now —likely provided a template for this.

The ability to use short-range drones to prosecute attacks in the Mediterranean indicates that vessels could be under threat elsewhere in European waters or even beyond. Beyond that, we could see Ukraine start to use longer-range systems, including one-way attack drones equipped with Starlink terminals, in the future.

Regardless, this development not only makes it potentially harder for Russia to export oil but also means that other commercial shipping will have to be aware of the increasing risks and potentially take measures to enhance their protection.

While the attack on Qendil appears to be the first of its kind in the Mediterranean, a further geographical expansion of Kyiv’s campaign against the Russian shadow fleet should not be ruled out.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

MEXICO CITY — President Trump has ordered a partial blockade on oil tankers going to and from Venezuela, potentially crippling the nation’s already battered economy, and accused Caracas of stealing “oil, land other assets” from the United States — a significant escalation of Washington’s unrelenting campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Asked about Venezuela on Wednesday, Trump said the United States will be “getting land, oil rights and whatever we had.”

“We want it back,” Trump said without further elaboration. It was unclear if Trump planned to say more about Venezuela in a televised address to the nation late Wednesday night.

The blockade, which aims to cripple the key component of Venezuela’s faltering, oil-dependent economy, comes as the Trump administration has bolstered military forces in the Caribbean, blown up more than two dozen boats allegedly ferrying illicit drugs in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, and threatened military strikes on Venezuela and neighboring Colombia.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a rambling post Tuesday night on his Truth Social site. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”

Not long after Trump announced the blockade Tuesday night, the government of Venezuela denounced the move and other Trump efforts as an attempt to “rob the riches that belong to our people.”

Leaders of other Latin American nations called for calm and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after a phone call with Maduro, called on U.N. members to “exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability.”

Also Wednesday, Trump received rare pushback from the Republican-dominated Congress, where some lawmakers are pressuring the administration to disclose more information about its deadly attacks on alleged drug boats.

The Senate gave final approval to a $900-billion defense policy package that, among other things, would require the administration to disclose to lawmakers specific orders behind the boat strikes along with unedited videos of the deadly attacks. If the administration does not comply, the bill would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget.

The bill’s passage came a day after Hegseth and Secretary Marco Rubio came to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military campaign. The briefings left lawmakers with mixed reaction, largely with Republicans backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it.

The White House has said its military campaign in Venezuela is meant to curb drug trafficking, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the U.S.-bound drug trade.

Trump also declared that the South American country had been designated a “foreign terrorist organization.” That would apparently make Venezuela the first nation ever slapped with a classification normally reserved for armed groups deemed hostile to the United States or its allies. The consequences remain unclear for Venezuela.

Regional responses to the Trump threats highlight the new ideological fault lines in Latin America, where right-wing governments in recent years have won elections in Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.

The leftist leaders of the region’s two most populous nations — Brazil and Mexico — have called for restraint in Venezuela.

“Whatever one thinks about the Venezuelan government or the presidency of Maduro, the position of Mexico should always be: No to intervention, no to foreign meddling,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday, calling on the United Nations to look for a peaceful solution and avoid any bloodshed.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also urged Trump to pull back from confrontation. “The power of the word can outweigh the power of the gun,” Lula said he told Trump recently, offering to facilitate talks with the Maduro government.

But Chile’s right-wing president-elect, José Antonio Kast, said he supports regime-change in Venezuela, asserting that it would reduce migration from Venezuela to other nations in the region.

“If someone is going to do it, let’s be clear that it solves a gigantic problem for us and all of Latin America, all of South America, and even for countries in Europe,” Kast said, referring to Venezuelan immigration.

In his Tuesday post, Trump said he had ordered a “complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela.” While potentially devastating to Venezuela’s economy, the fact that the blockade will only affect tankers already sanctioned by U.S. authorities does give Venezuela some breathing room, at least for now.

Experts estimated that only between one-third and one-half of tankers transporting crude to and from Venezuela are likely part of the so-called “dark fleet” of sanctioned tankers. The ships typically ferry crude from Venezuela and Iran, two nations under heavy U.S. trade and economic bans.

However, experts said that even a partial blockade will be a major hit for Venezuela’s feeble economy, reeling under more than a decade of of U.S. penalties. And Washington can continue adding to the list of sanctioned tankers.

“The United States can keep sanctioning more tankers, and that would leave Venezuela with almost no income,” said David A. Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. “That would probably cause a famine in the country.”

The growing pressure, analysts said, will likely mean the diminishing number of firms willing to take the risk of transporting Venezuelan crude will up their prices, putting more pressure on Caracas. Purchasers in China and elsewhere will also likely demand price cuts to buy Venezuelan oil.

Trump has said that Maduro must go because he is a “narco-terrorist” and heads the “Cartel de los Soles,” which the While House calls is a drug-trafficking syndicate. Trump has put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head. Experts say that Cartel de los Soles is not a functioning cartel, but a short-hand term for Venezuelan military officers who have been involved in the drug trade for decades, long before Maduro or his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chávez, took office.

In his comments on Tuesday, Trump denounced the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry, a process that began in the 1970s, when Caracas was a strong ally of Washington.

Echoing Trump’s point that Venezuela “stole” U.S. assets was Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security advisor, who declared on X: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property.”

Among those believed to be driving Trump’s efforts to oust Maduro is Secretary of State Maro Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to Florida. Rubio has long been an outspoken opponent of the communist governments in Havana and Caracas. Venezuelan oil has helped the economies of left-wing governments in both Cuba and Nicaragua.

Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, said Rubio has been on a long-time campaign to remove Maduro.”He has his own political project,” Sabatini said. “He wants to get rid of the dictators in Venezuela and Cuba.”

Staff writers McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Contributing was special correspondent Mery Mogollón in Caracas.

The incident involved JetBlue Flight 1112 from Curacao, which is just off the coast of Venezuela, en route to New York City’s JFK airport.

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curacao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US Air Force refuelling tanker on Friday, with the JetBlue pilot blaming the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path… They don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous.”

It comes as the US military has stepped up its drug interdiction activities in the Caribbean and is also seeking to increase pressure on the Venezuelan government.

“We just had traffic pass directly in front of us, within 5 miles [8km] of us – maybe 2 or 3 miles [3 or 5km] – but it was an air-to air refueller from the United States Air Force, and he was at our altitude,” the pilot said. “We had to stop our climb.”

The pilot said the US Air Force plane then headed into Venezuelan airspace.

Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for JetBlue, said on Sunday: “We have reported this incident to federal authorities and will participate in any investigation.”

He added, “Our crew members are trained on proper procedures for various flight situations, and we appreciate our crew for promptly reporting this situation to our leadership team.”

The Pentagon referred The Associated Press agency to the Air Force for comment. The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US Federal Aviation Administration last month issued a warning to US aircraft, urging them to “exercise caution” when in Venezuelan airspace, “due to the worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela”.

According to the air traffic recording, the controller responded to the JetBlue pilot, “It has been outrageous with the unidentified aircraft within our air.”

The United States has fully commited to its enforcement of sanctions on Venezuela by seizing a large oil tanker off its coast. President Donald Trump publicly announced the operation on December 10^th and authorities said a joint FBI/Homeland Security/Coast Guard team executed a court-ordered seizure of the vessel, which was transporting Iranian and Venezuelan crude in violation of U.S imposed sanctions.

This is reportedly the first U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan oil shipment since sanctions began way back in 2019. “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” says Donald Trump.

Trying to maintain the credibility of U.S. sanctions at a time when their enforcement have increasingly been challenged by other international actors such as Russia or Iran. Now, The U.S. is willing to take direct action beyond economic wars, even at the risk of diplomatic and military escalation.

Reactions from Caracas

Venezuela publicly denounced the action and accused Washington of blatant theft describing the seizure as “an act of international piracy”. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has long cast himself as the victim of a U.S. led campaign to oust him from the country in order to seize the vast oil wealth on the country’s shores. He reiterated that the U.S. military buildup, which started this summer, including carrier strike groups and bases is directly aimed at overthrowing him.

Maduro’s supporters rallied in the streets against foreign aggression even as officials prepared diplomatic protests to international bodies. For the time being, he faces limited other practical options for retaliation as Venezuela’s navy is in no position to challenge U.S. maritime dominance, and legal recourse through international courts would likely take years.

Russia’s Offers Full Support

Moscow reaffirmed its backing for Maduro, emphasising the legitimacy of Venezuela’s government and condemning what it described as unilateral U.S. actions. An ally in South America provides Russia opportunities for energy investment, and a way to challenge U.S. influence.

The tanker seizure allows Moscow to frame Washington as overreaching and destabilising, a narrative it also applies to recent U.S. actions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. While Russia is unlikely to escalate militarily, its political backing is significant.

China’s Strategic Role, A Potential Mediator?

Avoiding direct confrontation with Washington over the seizure, Beijing has reiterated its general opposition to unilateral sanctions and calling for international dialogue. However, China remains Venezuela’s most important economic partner and oil consumer, giving it substantial influence over any talks in the region.

Chinese companies have adapted to sanctions by purchasing Venezuelan crude oil at discounted prices, often through intermediaries. For Beijing, Venezuela is also part of a broader strategy to diversify energy supplies and expand its economic reach to the Americas.

Impact on Oil Markets

The announcement caused a modest spike in oil prices around the globe; for example: Brent crude briefly rose about 0.4% to around $62 a barrel, before returning to normal levels in the following few days.

The incident also highlighted Venezuela’s export challenges: under sanctions, its oil trades at a deep discount for its main trade partners, China and Russia. American oil companies with Venezuelan ties reported no immediate trouble. Chevron the U.S. firm that co-owns Venezuela’s largest oil project said its operations there continue normally, and U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude have even ticked up slightly in recent months.

Broader Consequences

Neighbouring countries such as Cuba and other Caribbean states depend on Venezuelan oil and could feel its effects. Sanctioning Venezuela was intended to pressure the regime into political concessions, yet Maduro remains firmly in power.

Enforcement actions like this tanker seizure may increase short-term pressure, but they also come with great risk for the stability of the Caribbean. Venezuela’s experience mirrors that of Iran and Russia, suggesting that sanctions alone may be insufficient to produce regime change, particularly when the targeted government is provided external backing.

Possible Future Scenarios and Implications

One scenario is a continuation of this low-level rise in tensions, with the U.S. stepping up enforcement and Venezuela responding through diplomatic protests while relying on Russian support.

Another is a negotiated de-escalation, potentially linked to limited sanctions relief in exchange for political concessions, though past efforts suggest this would be difficult to achieve with the current White House administration.

A more destabilising scenario would involve a potential confrontation at sea and broader disruption to energy markets. However, this scenario remains unlikely for the time being.

With information from Reuters and BBC News.