US Chased Oil Tanker Away From Venezuela Amid Blockade

A sanctioned oil tanker pursued by US forces turned away from Venezuela and retreated out into the Atlantic Ocean, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Trump administration continues a blockade piling pressure on Caracas.

The US Coast Guard encountered the ship, Bella 1, amid bad weather near Barbados on Sunday and instructed the tanker to move to calmer waters for safe boarding, according to the people familiar with the operation, who asked not to be identified without permission to speak publicly.

The ship instead sailed toward the Atlantic Ocean, the people said, with one person adding that US officials expect it won’t return. The tanker was not hauling oil at the time it turned away from Venezuela, one person said.

A US official said the Coast Guard has not given up its pursuit of the tanker, and that there is a judicial seizure order on it.

The tanker crew’s decision to flee away from closely-monitored Venezuelan waters shows how a US blockade ordered by President Donald Trump is disrupting the South American nation’s oil exports, most of which normally go to China. The operation is part of the largest US military deployment to the region in decades, which the Trump administration ordered to stop drug cartels and put pressure on Venezuela’s government.

Trump, during a Christmas Eve call with military service members around the world that included troops aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, mused that the Caribbean is “an interesting place” to be deployed right now. He reiterated that the US was “going after the land” after weeks’ worth of strikes on alleged drug boats at sea — though again didn’t specify when or where the long-signaled strikes on land may begin.

The White House has ordered commanders in the region to focus for the next two months on quarantining Venezuelan oil, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter, said that US forces are focused nearly exclusively on the economic blockade, rather than on military options.

The emphasis on quarantining Venezuelan oil, rather than escalating with a broader campaign of military strikes, is a sign the US is seeking to pressure President Nicolas Maduro by squeezing his government’s finances before considering more forceful measures. Reuters was first to report the directive.

Last weekend, the Trump administration continued its broader pressure campaign against Maduro by stepping up its blockade of tankers going to and from Venezuela. That Saturday, US forces boarded a non-sanctioned ship known as Centuries, which is owned by a Hong Kong-based entity, while separately pursuing Bella 1. Another very large crude carrier, the Skipper, was intercepted on Dec. 10.

Unable to export most of its oil, Venezuela is rapidly filling up storage tanks and idle tankers, raising the likelihood that it will soon have to start shutting oil wells.

The moves against the three vessels represent the most concerted effort to date to disrupt crucial oil revenues funding Maduro’s government, which the Trump administration recently designated a foreign terrorist organization over alleged links to drug cartels. Maduro has so far withstood the pressure, but the blockade is beginning to limit hard currency in an already battered economy.

On Monday, Trump warned Maduro not to challenge the US and vowed to keep oil seized from another supertanker. Trump declined to say explicitly if he was seeking to oust the Venezuelan leader, but earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News that Maduro “needs to be gone.”

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Maduro’s cooperation with narco-traffickers and terrorists “intolerable” — though he also wouldn’t say if regime change was the goal.