LatinNews Daily - 11 December 2025

*US military forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in a major escalation of the pressure being exerted on the Venezuelan government by US President Donald Trump’s administration. US Attorney General Pam Bondi shared footage on social media of troops landing on the tanker from helicopters and securing the ship, seemingly without any resistance from the crew. Bondi said that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security, US Coast Guard, and the defence department had “executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.” She said that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations”. Asked what would happen to the oil on board the vessel, President Trump replied: “I assume we’re going to keep the oil”. Venezuela’s foreign ministry slammed the seizure as “an act of international piracy”. It came on the same day that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado arrived in Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. Machado, who has been in hiding for over a year, reportedly left Venezuela secretly in a boat to Curaçao. She did not arrive in time for the prize ceremony but greeted supporters in the capital, Oslo. She said in an interview with the BBC that she intends to return to Venezuela, although there are doubts as to whether President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government will allow her to return to the country.

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