Read our editorial on US aggression against Venezuela and why the people must oppose it here.
The FBI, Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard, seized the M/T Skipper oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in a joint operation on December 10, as announced by ultra-reactionary President Trump at a White House meeting the same day. Trump kept details surrounding the seizure to a minimum, stating that “it was seized for a very good reason.”
According to court documents released on December 12, the seizure was conducted under a judge-approved warrant that was set to expire the same day.
Footage of the seizure was released on social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi on the same day, stating that the tanker was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran,” adding that “the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.” Satellite information suggests that the tanker was headed for Cuba.
The US government justifies its blatant piracy by claiming it has deemed trade with Venezuela to be illegal. This imperialist logic is then uncritically propagated by monopoly media, stating Venezuelan oil tankers are involved in “illicit oil shipping,” and part of a rogue “shadow fleet,” while nothing is said about the illegal hijacking of the ship and US provocations and murder of fisherman off the coast of Venezuela.
The day before the ship hijacking, the US military flew two F/A-18F fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela, the closest that US military aircraft have been to Venezuela’s airspace during the Trump administration.
On November 29, President Trump announced that the airspace “above and surrounding Venezuela” is closed, something that the Venezuelan government has criticized as a “colonialist threat” and “unjustified aggression” in a statement later that day. While air traffic around Venezuela has significantly declined, it has not stopped entirely.
Meanwhile, Congress is investigating whether a September 2 US attack on a fishing ship off the coast of Venezuela that killed all 11 people on board constitutes a war crime after the commander of the operation ordered a “double tap”—a follow-up strike intentionally targeting defenseless survivors. The attack was the first of so far over 20 US strikes on fishing ships around Venezuela carried out under the guise of combating “narco-terrorism”, and the only one yet to be challenged by Congress. Over 80 fishermen have been killed so far, and no evidence has been presented regarding their alleged connection to drug trafficking.
Image: US troops deploy on the M/T Skipper oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Credit: Screenshot from a video posted by @AGPamBondi on X.
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