The Venezuelan government said on Saturday that an American destroyer intercepted, approached and occupied Friday for eight hours a Venezuelan tuna ship in waters of the special economic zone of the South American country.
The incident occurs in the middle of one between Washington and Caracas, after an American military attack in the Caribbean caused the death of 11 people and sank a boat from that, according to President Donald Trump, he transported illegal narcotics.
The Venezuelan government has said that none of the victims belonged to the criminal organization of Aragua, as the United States said.
In a statement read by the Foreign Minister, Yvan Gil, the Venezuelan government said that the boat was approached “illegally” and “hostile” by 18 troops with long weapons of a destroyer of the United States Navy “equipped with powerful cruise missiles and manned by highly specialized marines.”
He explained that the tuna ship was manned by nine “humble” fishermen and identified the American ship as USS “Jason Dunham” (DDG-109).
According to Venezuela, the National Armed Forces was monitoring the “minute by minute” incident with its aerial, naval and surveillance media, “accompanying fishermen until their release.” In addition, he demanded that the United States immediately cease actions of this type, that “they put at risk the security and peace of the Caribbean.”
