The Southern Command assured that the Veronica “is the most recent” ship that operates “in defiance” of the “quarantine” established by President Trump.
MIAMI, United States. – The United States intercepted and seized the oil tanker Veronica in the Caribbean Sea before dawn this Thursday, in an operation carried out from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and coordinated with other federal agencies, according to the US Southern Command. The action was carried out “without incident,” according to an official statement.
In its press release, Southern Command framed the raid within Operation Southern Spear, which it attributed to the “War Department” and described as an initiative to “crush” illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere, in partnership with the Coast Guard through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and with the Department of Justice.
The Southern Command assured that the Veronica “is the most recent” ship that operates “in defiance” of the “quarantine” established by President Donald Trump on sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.
In the same statement, the Southern Command stated that “the only oil that will leave Venezuela will be the one that is coordinated in an adequate and legal manner.”
The Veronica is the sixth tanker seized by the United States since mid-December, within the escalation of interdictions linked to the Venezuelan oil trade.
The immediate sequence of official operations disclosed by the Southern Command also shows a previous action on January 9, when it occurred the apprehension of the tanker Olina in the Caribbeanalso in a “before dawn” operation from the USS Gerald R. Ford and “without incident.”
Regarding the deterrent impact, a message posted on
In the case of the Veronica, the Southern Command reiterated that the “War Department”, “in coordination with interagency partners”, will continue actions to “defend” US territory by ending illicit activity and “restoring” security in the Western Hemisphere.
These interdictions occur in a context of tightening Washington’s policy against the departure of Venezuelan crude oil in maritime routes in the Caribbean, a key transit region for energy shipments and, by extension, for countries allied or dependent on oil supplies.
