This image from video posted on Attorney General Pam Bondi's X account, and partially redacted by the source, shows an oil tanker being seized by US forces off the coast of Venezuela, on December 10, 2025. US Attorney General's Office/X via AP

The Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic twists yet in a military pressure campaign against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The boarding of a foreign ship is an unusual step and expands a US operation already highlighted by strikes against more than 20 boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that the administration claims carried drug traffickers.

Early reports suggest the swoop by US Coast Guard personnel, with the backing of the Navy and law enforcement agencies, poses

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