Venezuela on Wednesday condemned the US seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off its coast, calling it an “act of international piracy”.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly denounces and rejects what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States, who confessed to the attack on an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea,” the government said in a statement. official communiqué.
The statement, published by Correo del Orinoco, a state news outlet that regularly publishes the Venezuelan government’s official announcements, framed the seizure as part of a broader campaign against the country’s sovereignty and natural resources.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that in a joint operation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the War Department, a seizure warrant was executed for a crude oil tanker allegedly used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
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American troops were seen entering the ship with guns drawn. (@AGPamBondi via X)
“The oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States for several years for its involvement in an illicit oil transportation network that supports foreign terrorist organizations,” she said on
Bondi released unclassified video footage of the operation, which showed a helicopter approaching the large tanker and tactical personnel fending off using a rope on the deck.
Newly released footage shows US forces securing a Venezuelan oil tanker. (@AGPamBondi via X)
President Donald Trump announced the seizure Wednesday during a White House roundtable with business leaders.
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“As you probably know, we just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela. A large tanker, very large, the largest ever seized,” Trump told reporters. ‘And other things happen. So you’ll see that later, and you’ll talk to some other people about that later.”
President Donald Trump looks on during a roundtable discussion in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 10, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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“It was seized for a very good reason,” he later added.
When asked by a reporter what would happen to the oil on board the tanker, Trump replied: “Well, we’ll keep it, I guess.”
A short time later he said, “I guess we’ll keep the oil.”
