As we reported on Wednesday, the United States seized a large oil tanker about 100 mile off the coast of Venezuela, ramping up the pressure against Nicolás Maduro and his illegitimate narco-regime. Donald Trump confirmed the news during a meeting at the White House, stating that it was "a large tanker...the largest one ever seized actually."
It's the first time the U.S. has seized Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions began in 2019. On Wednesday evening, Attorney General Pam Bondi released further details, including a video of the mission that she posted on X. She said:
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations. This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely — and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues.
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 10, 2025
So, here's what we've learned since. The ship is called Skipper, and it can hold up to 2 million barrels of oil. On Wednesday, it was carrying about 1.8 million. It was loaded at a terminal at Puerto José sometime around December 4 or 5. About half of the oil was headed to Cuba before likely rerouting to China.
Cuba and Venezuela have a highly symbiotic relationship that goes back to the days of Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Currently, Maduro provides the Cuban regime with cheap oil, and in return Cuba provides Venezuela with medical professionals from its forced labor program, as well as military and intelligence training. Maduro's mismanagement of Venezuela's oil reserves has weakened the amount of oil Venezuela can provide to its Communist island friend to the north, which is why Cuba currently faces almost daily blackouts. I suspect that's going to get a lot worse.
The ship itself was registered to Triton Navigation, a corporation registered in the Marshall Islands. In 2022, the Treasury Department sanctioned it for supporting Iran’s Hezbollah's oil smuggling network. Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., a Nigerian-based firm, acts as beneficial owner and operator for Triton. The ship flies a Guyana flag, but Guyana's Maritime Administration says it knows nothing about it. The ship also spent a portion of the last couple of years spoofing its AIS signal, making it harder to track. For example, it would claim it was in Guyana when it was really in Venezuela.
Reuters is reporting — via anonymous sources — that the Trump administration says that this may be the first oil tanker it seizes, but it won't be the last: "Further direct interventions by the U.S. are expected in the coming weeks targeting ships carrying Venezuelan oil that may also have transported oil from other countries targeted by U.S. sanctions, such as Iran, according to the sources familiar with the matter who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue."
According to Reuters' sources, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have a target list of ships and have been planning this operation for months. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) just posted this on X, seemingly confirming the news:
🚨Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s narcoterrorist Cartel de los Soles will now have a very hard time smuggling lethal drugs, oil, & illegal mining out of #Venezuela.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) December 11, 2025
All narcoterrorist Cartel de los Soles ships will be subject to seizure and/or destruction.
The end is near. pic.twitter.com/4dkfdN3DXz
🚨BREAKING —> We have shutdown #Venezuela’s airspace & have total control over the seas.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) December 11, 2025
Nothing can leave #Venezuela without the US knowing about it.
President Trump’s leadership is protecting America from these criminal narcoterrorists.
Maduro’s time is up! pic.twitter.com/Z39wBQw3Li
And, actually, as I'm writing this, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent have announced that the U.S. will continue targeting Maduro regime insiders through seizures and sanctions.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is "targeting Nicolas Maduro’s illegitimate regime in Venezuela, sanctioning three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores; a Maduro-affiliated businessman; and six shipping companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector. Additionally, OFAC is identifying six associated vessels that have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime."
"These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people," Bessent said. "Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes."
All of this is happening as the face and leader of Venezuela's opposition, María Corina Machado, made an escape worthy of a movie earlier this week to get to Oslo to celebrate her Nobel Prize win. She'd been in hiding in Venezuela since last August, but now she's on the world stage, pleading her country's case in person and making a lot of friends who are ready to do what it takes to see Maduro and his regime gone.
Related: How to Slip Past a Regime and Collect Your Nobel Peace Prize
When asked by a reporter on Thursday about the seizure of the ship, Machado praised Trump and the United States' "decisive" actions, stating that Maduro and the regime is at its weakest point. "Because before, the regime thought it had impunity...now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching," she said.
A reporter also asked how she felt about the idea of a "U.S. military intervention in Venezuela."
"Look, some people talk about the threat of an invasion in Venezuela, and I answered that Venezuela has already been invaded," she said. "We have the Russian agents. We have the Iranian agents. We have terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah, Hamas operating freely in accordance with the regime."
Yesterday, I wrote that Maduro is having a very bad day. Today, I think he's having a worse one. The walls are closing in. Reuters is also reporting — again, anonymous sources — that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been meeting with a Venezuelan envoy in recent weeks and may be prepared to offer Maduro a place to stay should he make it out of his home country. The Venezuelan dictator reportedly told Trump last month that he would step down if the United States granted him amnesty. Remember, he's a wanted man for narco-terrorism in the U.S., with a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Maduro himself hasn't spoken out on the ship seizure — that I know of; this story is moving fast and I'm sick in bed trying to keep up with it — but his regime has condemned it as a hostile act against the country's sovereignty and economic interests.
The Cuban regime has also condemned the U.S. actions via its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. "We strongly denounce the aggressive escalation of the [United States] government against Venezuela, " he wrote in a statement on X. "We condemn the vile act of piracy and the seizure by that country's military forces of a vessel carrying Venezuelan oil, which contravenes the rules of free trade and freedom of navigation, in open violation of International Law."
Vladimir Putin also says he called Maduro on Thursday and "discussed their shared interest in advancing a strategic partnership agreement and moving forward on joint projects in the economic and energy sectors."
That sounds a bit delusional at this point, but no one is quite as delusional as Maduro himself. While the world is swirling around him, he's out doing yet another song and dance number in English. This time, it's "Don't Worry, Be Happy." I'll leave you with the video as a parting gift. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you need a laugh today.
Maduro responds to Trump seizing his oil by singing "Don't worry, be happy" pic.twitter.com/9hjeyoo13c
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 11, 2025
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