In a major escalation of the White House’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against the Venezuelan regime, U.S. military forces have boarded and seized yet another oil tanker in the Caribbean.
The takeover of the Motor Vessel Sagitta on Tuesday marks the seventh vessel to be intercepted by American forces as the Trump administration tightens its grip on South American oil exports.
U.S. Southern Command confirmed the high-seas operation on social media, revealing that the vessel was apprehended ‘without incident’ and that the tanker was caught red-handed, ‘operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.’
SOUTHCOM did not confirm whether the U.S. Coast Guard led the boarding party, as it has in previous high-seas busts.
Video posted on X last week showed troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of The Veronica in a pre-dawn seizure in the Caribbean.
Marines and sailors captured the vessel without incident, the military command responsible for Central, South America and the Caribbean said on X.
‘The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,’ it said. The tanker is the sixth seized in recent weeks.
Trump has enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first-term.
The U.S. military and Coast Guard have seized seven vessels in recent weeks in international waters that were either carrying Venezuelan oil or have done so in the past
To ensure she does his bidding, earlier this month, Trump threatened Rodríguez with a ‘situation probably worse than Maduro,’ who is being held in a Brooklyn jail.
On December 16, US President Trump imposed a ‘complete blockade’ on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, in a move Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said was one of the largest ‘quarantines’ in modern history.
He added that it was successfully ‘paralysing’ the regime’s ability to generate revenue.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
