Venezuela cries ‘theft, kidnapping’ after U.S. seizes oil tanker

CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuelan officials on Saturday condemned the “theft and kidnapping” of an oil tanker by the United States for the second time, according to a government statement. 

“These acts will not go unpunished,” the statement published on social media by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said, adding that “those responsible for these serious events will answer to justice and to history for their criminal conduct.”

The United States “apprehended” an oil tanker off Venezuela on Saturday in the latest salvo of a pressure campaign by Washington, the US government said.

It was the second time in two weeks that US forces have interdicted a tanker in the region, and comes days after President Donald Trump announced a blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” heading to and leaving Venezuela.

“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” US Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said in a post on X.

The post was accompanied by a nearly eight-minute video of aerial footage that showed a helicopter hovering just above the deck of a large tanker at sea.

A post from Homeland Security identified the vessel as the Centuries and said it was “suspected of carrying oil subject to US sanctions.” 

Centuries is a Chinese-owned, Panama-flagged oil tanker, according to TankerTrackers, an online service monitoring oil shipments and storage.

It said that Centuries loaded 1.8 million barrels of crude oil at a Venezuelan port.