The United States has intercepted another tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil for the second time this weekend in international waters in the Caribbean and for the third time in twelve days. This has been revealed by at least two US officials to the Reuters agency. One of them said that sanctions were weighing on the ship.
According to Bloomberg, it is the Bella-1, with a Panamanian flag, but related to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard through the company Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises. The ship was approaching the Venezuelan coast at the time of the intervention.
When consulted by EFE, the Pentagon and the Coast Guard referred all questions about the operation to the White House, which at the moment has not corroborated the reports about the action in progress.
This Saturday the US Army intercepted the Centuries ship, also flying the Panamanian flag, according to The New York Timesand on the 10th he boarded another one, the Skipper.
Four days ago, Trump ordered a total blockade of the entry and exit of this country to oil tankers sanctioned by the US Government, within the pressure he exerts on the Maduro Government, which Washington accuses of leading a drug trafficking network.
Since August, the United States has maintained an extensive military deployment within an anti-drug campaign in which it has destroyed some 30 boats allegedly linked to drug trafficking and murdered more than a hundred of its crew members, which has already resulted in the first formal complaint for extrajudicial murder.
Meanwhile, Caracas rejected the seizure of the Centuries as a “robbery and kidnapping” by the United States of “a new private ship” that transported Venezuelan crude oil.
The other key issue is what will happen to the crude oil those ships were transporting. After seizing the Centuries, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “The ship will go to an American port, and the United States intends to seize the oil.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
