Gunboat Diplomacy Accelerated: US Seizes Another Oil Tanker Off Venezuela’s Coast

Update: 

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, has seized another oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil used to fund narco-terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you,” Noem wrote in a post on X.

In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.

The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund… pic.twitter.com/nSZ4mi6axc

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 20, 2025

Reuters reported earlier about the operation. 

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President Trump’s gunboat diplomacy is aimed at disrupting crude oil flows moving from Venezuela to Cuba and onward to China. The foreign-policy campaign began earlier this year with U.S. warships stationed off Venezuela’s coast in international waters, but it accelerated sharply weeks ago with the U.S. seizure of a sanctioned tanker in the Caribbean and has now escalated further with reports that another tanker was intercepted and seized.

Reuters cites three U.S. officials on Saturday morning who said U.S. forces are interdicting and seizing another tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters. This could mark the second such seizure in weeks and comes days after Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers in the Venezuela region.

Apparently, U.S. Coast Guard teams are leading this operation amid a broader U.S. military buildup in the region, though officials have not disclosed the exact location of the latest tanker seizure.

Trump’s gunboat diplomacy is aimed at the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro. This ploy could accelerate regime instability in Caracas and materially weaken Cuba.

“Their theory of change involves cutting off all support to Cuba,” Juan S. Gonzalez, who was President Joe Biden’s top White House aide for Western Hemisphere affairs, recently said. “Under this approach, once Venezuela goes, Cuba will follow.”

On Tuesday, Trump ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. He further boasted of the country having been “completely surrounded” with the “largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”

He then warned, “It [the blockade] will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

Brent crude markets slipped underneath $60/bbl last week, ending the week at $60.57, as traders appear numb to Trump’s gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean.

We’re surprised Beijing hasn’t lashed out at the U.S. for such actions in the Caribbean, given that this disrupts oil trade flows from West to East. Perhaps a deal was made at the Trump-Xi meeting in the fall.