The Venezuelan government has condemned the U.S.’s seizure of an oil tanker off its coast as “piracy,” as President Donald Trump says that the U.S. is keeping the oil.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government said the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” It added that the move shows that the U.S.’s recent aggression “has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
Trump told reporters that the tanker was “seized for a very good reason,” and claimed that it was the “largest [tanker] ever seized.” When asked what the U.S. would do with the oil aboard the tanker, he said, “We keep it, I guess.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the U.S. “executed a seizure warrant” for the tanker, which was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi said in a post on X. Attached to the post was a video supposedly depicting the seizure, showing grainy footage of U.S. troops descending on the vessel from a helicopter and storming it, guns in hand.
The Department of Homeland Security also posted a video of the seizure, bragging that it was a “KNOCKOUT,” adding a song by LL Cool J to the footage.
Experts have cast doubt as to whether it is legal for the U.S. to seize the tanker, noting that it is highly unusual to do so in international waters.
“This action marks a significant escalation not only of the U.S.–Venezuela conflict but also of the extraterritorial enforcement of sanctions by the United States. From a strictly legal standpoint, the U.S. has no jurisdiction to impede Venezuela from selling its oil to non-U.S. parties as long as the transaction happens outside of U.S. territory,” said Francisco Rodríguez, senior fellow for the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“What the U.S. is doing is using the law of the sea concerning stateless vessels, which allows it to approach, board, and inspect vessels without a national registration, as an entryway to justify enforcing U.S. sanctions outside of U.S. territory,” Rodríguez added, saying that a prolonged campaign like this could deepen Venezuela’s economic woes.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) pleaded with Congress to exercise its war powers to stop the Trump administration from further escalation with Venezuela.
“Trump is bringing us to the brink of war — a regime change war — and we are running out of time to stop it,” Van Hollen said.
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