Fwd from @, from Rybar:

📝Escalation in the Caribbean Sea📝

About the US interception of an oil tanker

Americans once again used military force in the Caribbean Sea: yesterday, the US Coast Guard, together with the FBI and Homeland Security, seized the vessel Skipper, sailing under the Guyanese flag.

The official reason is the use of the tanker for transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran, including — "to support terrorist organizations".

💬 "We just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a big tanker, a very big one — in fact, the largest ever seized," — Donald Trump noted.

🖍Once again, American actions lead to serious escalation in the region. For White House officials, this is another step towards an economic blockade of Venezuela, significantly complicating the country's oil exports.

🚩On the other hand, this is another demonstration of the US Armed Forces' readiness to use military force against the Maduro administration, clearly aimed at intimidating the Venezuelan leader.

❗️Under the pretext of "combating terrorism", the United States is effectively expanding the objectives of Operation Southern Spear. In fact, this will mark the beginning of a new phase in the confrontation with Venezuela.

And the norms of international law and the opinions of foreign states are not even mentioned for the sake of appearances in Washington, which fits well with the new national security concept.

Adding more about this: 

The United States just carried out a full military seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, and Washington is now claiming the vessel was linked to Iran’s IRGC and Hezbollah.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Coast Guard, and the Department of War executed a federal seizure warrant on the Guyana-flagged M/T SKIPPER, a tanker long under U.S. Treasury sanctions.

At 6:00 a.m., two MH-60 Seahawks dropped U.S. Special Forces onto the ship, along with 10 Marines and 10 Coast Guard personnel.

The takeover was described as “safe,” but the legal justification is already under scrutiny.

When Iran seized a tanker in international waters last year, CENTCOM called it a “blatant violation of international law” that “undermines freedom of navigation and free commerce.”

(Their own press release literally says this.)

Yet today, U.S. forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Caribbean near Venezuelan territorial waters, using heliborne special operators to enforce unilateral U.S. sanctions that neither Venezuela nor the region recognizes.

If Iran does it: “Illegal seizure in international waters.”

If the United States does it: “A successful law-enforcement operation.”

More: 

Venezuela issues a blistering statement after the U.S. military seized an oil tanker near its waters, denouncing the operation as outright theft and “international piracy.”

Caracas says Washington’s motives are not migration, drugs, democracy, or human rights, but Venezuela’s natural resources, which the U.S. has openly admitted wanting to control.

Key points from the government’s communiqué:

➡️The tanker’s seizure is described as a criminal act, part of a deliberate U.S. strategy to strip Venezuela of its energy resources, the same pattern seen in the CITGO takeover.

➡️The government says these events expose the true reasons behind years of U.S. pressure: oil, minerals, and energy, not humanitarian concerns.

➡️Caracas accuses the U.S. of using the tanker operation to distract from the “failed political show” in Oslo, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize controversy surrounding María Corina Machado, which Venezuela describes as another foreign-backed attempt at regime change.

➡️Venezuela calls on its citizens to remain united in defense of the nation, and urges the international community to condemn what it describes as a vandalic, illegal, and unprecedented act of aggression.

➡️Caracas says it will take the case to international legal bodies, asserting its right to defend national sovereignty and prevent foreign powers from seizing Venezuelan assets.

This marks one of the strongest official rebukes from Venezuela since the crisis began, and signals a new escalation between Washington and Caracas.