{"id":45570,"date":"2025-12-11T11:56:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45570"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:56:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:56:05","slug":"trump-escalates-in-venezuela-with-illegal-us-seizure-of-oil-tanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/trump-escalates-in-venezuela-with-illegal-us-seizure-of-oil-tanker\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Escalates in Venezuela With \u2018Illegal\u2019 US Seizure of Oil Tanker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/a-venezuelan-navy-patrol-boat-escorts-panamanian-flagged-crude-oil-tanker-yoselin-near-the-el-palito-refinery-in-puerto-cabello.jpg?id=62304848&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;coordinates=0%2C160%2C0%2C90\" alt=\"Trump Escalates in Venezuela With 'Illegal' US Seizure of Oil Tanker\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A Venezuelan navy patrol boat escorts Panamanian flagged crude oil tanker Yoselin near the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on November 11, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo by Juan Carlos Hernandez\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cMillions of civilians will be at risk if the economy deteriorates and tensions rise,\u201d warned one anti-war group.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 10, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military\">US military<\/a>&nbsp;on Wednesday seized an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/oil\">oil<\/a>&nbsp;tanker off the coast of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/venezuela\">Venezuela<\/a>&nbsp;in the latest act of aggression against a nation that President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>&nbsp;has been openly threatening for several weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bloomberg<\/em>, which described the move as a \u201cserious escalation\u201d in tensions between the US and Venezuela, reported that the seizure of the tanker by US forces \u201cmay make it much harder for Venezuela to export its oil, as other shippers are now likely to be more reluctant to load its cargoes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RECOMMENDED&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-ground-attack-venezuela\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/donald-trump.jpg?id=62299317&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=80&amp;coordinates=333%2C0%2C333%2C0\" alt=\"Donald Trump\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-ground-attack-venezuela\">Trump Says Ground Attack on Venezuela Imminent\u2014Plus Colombia, Mexico Also in US Crosshairs<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/venezuela-airspace\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/us-politics-trump-military-holiday.jpg?id=62258000&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=80&amp;coordinates=833%2C0%2C834%2C0\" alt=\"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-MILITARY-HOLIDAY\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/venezuela-airspace\">Trump Claims Venezuelan Airspace Is Closed in Latest Illegal, \u2018Dangerous Escalation\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The seizure was described to&nbsp;<em>Bloomberg<\/em>&nbsp;by a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/trump-administration\">Trump administration<\/a>&nbsp;official as a \u201cjudicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel\u201d that had been docked in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after the seizure occurred, Trump boasted about it during a meeting with business leaders at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/white-house\">White House<\/a>, declaring that the tanker was the \u201clargest one ever seized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump: &quot;It&#39;s been an interesting day from the standpoint of news. As you probably know, we&#39;ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Largest one ever seized actually. And other things are happening.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wyOYMKCJTT\">pic.twitter.com\/wyOYMKCJTT<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atrupar\/status\/1998846959793099131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 10, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Just Foreign Policy, a progressive think tank and advocacy group,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/justfp\/status\/1998833430407295037\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">condemned<\/a>&nbsp;the seizure of the tanker, describing it as an \u201cillegal US move to take control of Venezuela\u2019s natural resources and strangle the economy, which is already struggling under indiscriminate US&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/sanctions\">sanctions<\/a>,\u201d and warning that \u201cmillions of civilians will be at risk if the economy deteriorates and tensions rise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The seizure of the oil tanker is just one of many aggressive maneuvers that the Trump administration has been making around Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting in September, the administration began a series of murders of people aboard boats in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela and in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trump administration has claimed those targeted for extrajudicial killing are drug smugglers and accused Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro of leading an international drug trafficking organization called the Cartel de los Soles, despite many experts&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-venezuela-war-2674253712\">saying<\/a>&nbsp;that they have seen no evidence that such an organization formally exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump late last month further escalated tensions with Venezuela when he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/venezuela-airspace\">declared<\/a>\u00a0that airspace over the nation was \u201cclosed in its entirety,\u201d even though he lacks any legal authority to enforce such a decree. Trump has also hinted that strikes against purported drug traffickers on Venezuelan soil would occur in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brad-reed\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Venezuelan navy patrol boat escorts Panamanian flagged crude oil tanker Yoselin near the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on November 11, 2025. \u00a0(Photo by Juan Carlos Hernandez\/AFP via Getty Images) \u201cMillions of civilians will be at risk if the economy deteriorates and tensions rise,\u201d warned one anti-war&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/trump-escalates-in-venezuela-with-illegal-us-seizure-of-oil-tanker\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45570"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45571,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45570\/revisions\/45571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}