Coast Guard pursues oil tanker Trump administration says evaded Venezuela blockade The Trump administration continued its pressure campaign against Venezuela's president over the weekend, enforcing a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from the country.
The Trump administration says the Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker linked with Venezuela.
That's one of several developments over the weekend in the U.S. campaign against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. is trying to enforce a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
INSKEEP: OK. There's a lot to catch up on here, so NPR's Carrie Kahn is tracking it all from Rio de Janeiro. Carrie, welcome.
INSKEEP: Terms to define here - what does the United States mean when they say they are pursuing a tanker?
KAHN: Right. We have limited official information on the situation right now in the Caribbean. The Pentagon and the Coast Guard is referring all inquiries to the White House, which is not commenting. But late yesterday, one U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly did tell NPR the Coast Guard was in, quote, "active pursuit" of a ship. The officials said that ship, the tanker, was, quote, a "dark fleet vessel" attempting to illegally evade sanctions. The official also stated that the tanker was flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.
INSKEEP: What's a dark fleet vessel?
KAHN: Usually, these are oil tankers that use a lot of deceptive practices to evade international sanctions, like they fly fake national flags. But this is not the only ship the U.S. targeted over the weekend. In the predawn hours Saturday - and this is according to a social media post by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She said the Coast Guard, with the help from the military that's out there in the Caribbean, apprehended a different oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. According to data from the monitoring group TankerTrackers.com, the ship was not under U.S. sanctions, though. A White House spokeswoman later then posted on social media that the tanker was flying under a false flag, and again, TankerTrackers.com says it was a Panamanian flag.
INSKEEP: OK. So we've got two ships, one seized, one being pursued in some fashion. There was also this third ship earlier this month that the U.S. seized. What does this add up to? What is the United States really doing?
KAHN: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in that posting on social media that the U.S. is combating narcoterrorism, which the U.S. says Venezuela funds through its oil sales. But then when that White House spokeswoman also posted, Anna Kelly, in her social media post, she gave another argument that we've been hearing a lot from President Trump - that the oil in these tankers is stolen from the U.S. And if you remember last week when President Trump announced that he was going to put this total and complete blockade against Venezuelan oil and the sanctioned tankers, he said more military pressure would come - and I'm going to quote - until "they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land and other assets that" Venezuela stole from us. It's not entirely clear what President Trump is referring to. Venezuela, of course, denies they've stolen anything and says Trump's true intentions are out in the open now. He just wants Venezuela's natural resources and its vast oil reserves - among the largest in the world.
INSKEEP: How's Venezuela responding?
KAHN: Publicly, Steve, the government put out a statement condemning Saturday's seizure. Maduro put out a video accusing the U.S. of piracy and theft. He's called for the U.N. to intervene. Remember, the U.S. is also striking small boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific that it claims are transporting drugs, killing at least 104 people in at least 28 strikes so far. Maduro mentions all of this in rallies that he's holding a lot these days. And he's also giving long speeches on state TV where he insists he just wants peace, not war. He really likes saying that in English. And lately, he's even printed it on a MAGA-style red hat you see him wearing a lot, too.
INSKEEP: NPR's Carrie Kahn is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Carrie, thanks so much.
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