US military seizes another Venezuela-linked tanker in the Caribbean

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said it seized a Venezuela-linked tanker on Tuesday in the Caribbean, marking the seventh such apprehension since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s month-long campaign to control Venezuela’s oil flows.

The U.S. military’s Southern Command, which is overseeing nearly a dozen warships and thousands of troops in the Caribbean, said in a statement it apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta “without incident.”

“The apprehension of another tanker operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” it said in a statement.

Trump has focused his foreign policy in Latin America on Venezuela, initially aiming to push Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. After failing to find a diplomatic solution, Trump ordered U.S. forces to fly into the country to grab him and his wife in a daring overnight raid on January 3.

Since then, Trump has said the U.S. plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion plan.

The vessels intercepted in the past have been either under U.S. sanctions or part of a “shadow fleet” of ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers — Iran, Russia or Venezuela.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Chris Reese)