{"id":194438,"date":"2025-12-22T05:42:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-reportedly-pursuing-third-oil-tanker-linked-to-venezuela-bbc\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T05:42:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:42:23","slug":"us-reportedly-pursuing-third-oil-tanker-linked-to-venezuela-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-reportedly-pursuing-third-oil-tanker-linked-to-venezuela-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"US reportedly pursuing third oil tanker linked to Venezuela &#8211; BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US Coast Guard is in &quot;active pursuit&quot; of another vessel in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region continue to escalate.<br \/>US authorities have already seized two oil tankers this month &#8211; one of them <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c0mpy1ynnzzo\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\">on Saturday<\/a>. <br \/>Sunday&#x27;s pursuit related to a &quot;sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela&#x27;s illegal sanctions evasion&quot;, a US official said. &quot;It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.&quot;<br \/>Washington has accused Venezuela of using oil money to fund drug-related crime, while Venezuela has described the tanker seizures as &quot;theft and kidnapping&quot;.<br \/>US President Donald Trump last week ordered a &quot;blockade&quot; of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the country.<br \/>Venezuela &#8211; home to the world largest proven oil reserves &#8211; has accused the Trump administration of trying to steal its resources. <br \/>US authorities have not yet officially confirmed Sunday&#x27;s pursuit, and the exact location and name of the tanker involved is not yet known. <br \/>As of last week, more than 30 of the 80 ships in Venezuelan waters or approaching the country were under US sanctions, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com.<br \/>Saturday&#x27;s seizure saw a Panamanian-flagged tanker boarded by a specialised tactical team in international waters. <br \/>That ship is not on the US Treasury&#x27;s list of sanctioned vessels, but the US has said it was carrying &quot;sanctioned PDVSA oil&quot;. In the past five years the ship also sailed under the flags of Greece and Liberia, according to records seen by BBC Verify.<br \/>&quot;These acts will not go unpunished,&quot; the Venezuelan government said in response to Saturday&#x27;s incident. It added that it intended to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council and &quot;other multilateral agencies and the governments of the world&quot;.<br \/>Venezuela is highly dependent on revenues from its oil exports to finance its government spending.<br \/>In recent weeks, the US has built up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea and has carried out deadly strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats, killing around 100 people.<br \/>Sanctions also were placed on some of President Maduro&#x27;s relatives and on businesses associated with what the US calls his illegitimate regime.<br \/>Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday: &quot;It is clear that the current status quo with the Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States.&quot;<br \/>He added that the goal of the Trump administration is to change that dynamic.  <br \/>His comments were criticised by Venezuela&#x27;s foreign minister who accused Rubio dragging the US down the path of &quot;regime changes&quot;. <br \/>It has provided no public evidence that these vessels were carrying drugs, and the military has come under increasing scrutiny from Congress over the strikes.<br \/>The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro of leading a designated-terrorist organisation called Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.<br \/>Donald Trump&#x27;s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, issued a statement with the top Ukrainian negotiator after discussing the latest peace plans.<br \/>The only abortion clinic in town is fighting an eviction notice and other efforts to shut it down.<br \/>The photos were among the thousands of documents made public on Friday. By Saturday they had disappeared with no explanation or notice.<br \/>High-profile figures, including Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson, can be seen in the long-awaited files. <br \/>US lawmakers who pushed for the documents to be made public have criticised the initial release as incomplete. <br \/>Copyright 2025 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/feeds-and-links\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"sc-d16436d-0 gCPVhV\">Read about our approach to external linking.<\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiWkFVX3lxTE9WeVdhOWlWT3Znb25OQjFGS1ZiZ2ZzSzZ0VHE0aFp1Mm1NRUQ5bnZ6SV9lS2NBUk43YnhVRmtPTEdONnFTZWUweHpzSEUtVkxXUTJzUDBDeEMtZ9IBX0FVX3lxTE9uUUt2cVRpVlVud1ZnT0QtdEtBYkhZbWJ4WkFTM2ZkNE9kRTM4UDY3dHotMTl2aUpPVVdzNkU1cEJSaTZENnpSYzh6cVVLZ3pBUFhsV2JkdXpWaEZxOTBn?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Coast Guard is in &quot;active pursuit&quot; of another vessel in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region continue to escalate.US authorities have already seized two oil tankers this month &#8211; one of them on Saturday. Sunday&#x27;s pursuit related to a &quot;sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela&#x27;s illegal sanctions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-194438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}