USA transferred on Thursday to one of its ports the Venezuelan oil tanker seized the day before inspect are crude oil cargoin a new chapter of the military campaign that the Administration of US President Donald Trump keeps in the Caribbean against Venezuela.
“The ship will go to a US port and the US does intend to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed,” stated the spokesperson of the Casa Blanca, Karoline Leavittin a press conference. The operation was carried out jointly between the United States Department of Justice, the War Department (formerly Defense) and the Coast Guard.
He oilby name ‘Skipper’ and that he was sailing under a false flag, was seized on Wednesday by order of a US judge for his links previous with the Iranian oil smugglingsanctioned by Washington, although on this occasion it was transporting Venezuelan crude, according to ‘The New York Times’. The ship was intercepted in a great operationwith heavily armed US troops boarding the vessel from helicopters and speedboats.
Missing crew members
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Madurodenounced that the ship’s crew are “disappeared” and announced that he will take this fact, which he calls “criminal piracy”, to international bodies. According to Leavitt, the tanker is currently undergoing “a confiscation process” and the US has an investigation team on board that is questioning the crew.
Maduro also stated that the ship was carrying 1,900,000 barrels of oil. Furthermore, he denounced that this seizure reveals that the United States military deployment is for “steal” Venezuelan crude oil.
Fake flag of Guyana
The ship was sailing with a bandera of Guyanaand neighboring country a Venezuela that has given its support to the US military deployment in the Caribbean and that continues in dispute with Caracas over the Essequiboa border region administered by Georgetown. The seizure of the tanker occurred on the same day that Guyana announced the signing of an agreement with the United States to expand military cooperation between both countries.
Las Guyanese maritime authorities They confirmed that this tanker named ‘Skipper’ is not registered in the country and denounced that this “unauthorized use of the flag” is “unacceptable.”
Rejection of Colombia and Cuba
One day after the seizure of the tanker, the Colombian government of Gustavo Petro He rejected the attack and said his nation has no reason to deny a possible asylum request from Maduro, should he leave power in his country.
Before the Colombian reactionTrump had targeted Petro as “the next” focus of his military pressure, which he has said could expand to land operations in Venezuela soon.
Another nation that condemned the US seizure was Cubawhose president, Miguel Diaz-Canelassured that “it constitutes an act of piracy, a violation of International Law and an escalation in aggression against that brother country.”
Maduro’s family
In addition to the seizure of the tanker, the Treasury Department included Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, Francisco Flores de Freitas and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, all of them related to Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, on the sanctioned list.
The three are part of a battery of sanctions of the Donald Trump Administration which also affects Venezuelan oil sectorincluding a businessman and six shipping companies, and blocking six ships.
He Treasury Department pointed out in a statement that Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas, known as the “narco-nephews”were arrested in Haiti in 2015 for drug trafficking and convicted in the United States in 2016.
In his last public appearance, Trump said at the White House that his pressure campaign off the Venezuelan coast “is about many things,” when questioned by journalists after the oil tanker seizure.
“Anyone who gets involved in that right now is not going to do well,” he said. Trumpwhich once again repeated that the “ground” attacks on groups that Washington links to drug trafficking “are being launched.”
