Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced on Thursday the military assault, hijacking, and theft of an oil tanker by the United States north of Trinidad and Tobago, as the vessel “entered the Atlantic.” The president described this act as the beginning of a “new era of criminal naval piracy against the entire Caribbean.”

“It was an act of piracy against a merchant, commercial, civilian, and private vessel,” the head of state stated, adding that “the ship was private, civilian, and carrying 1.9 million barrels of oil that they bought from Venezuela.”

During a visit to the Amalivaca Socialist Commune in the Pinto Salinas sector of the El Recreo parish in Caracas, Maduro asserted that with this incident, the United States “has slipped,” revealing that the true interest behind the action is the seizure of Venezuelan oil. “It is the oil they want to steal, and Venezuela will protect its oil,” the president emphasized.

RELATED:

Putin Reaffirms Support for Venezuelan President Maduro in Phone Call

In this regard, the president stated that “if Venezuela did not have the largest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela would not exist for the billionaires and supremacists of the United States.”

Likewise, the Venezuelan head of state expressed his deep concern for the ship’s crew, noting that the sailors are being “held hostage” and that their current whereabouts are unknown. The statement underscores the gravity of the situation, which, in President Maduro’s words, threatens Venezuelan sovereignty and regional maritime security.

“The destiny of the United States and Venezuela must be one of respect, friendship, and cooperation,” the president emphasized while greeting the international delegations present. He also called on the American people to “win peace, tie the hands of the warmongers, and defeat the plans for a senseless war” in South America. In this regard, he delivered a message in English in which he exclaimed, “No blood for oil! Not war for oil!”

On Wednesday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry condemned “what constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States, who confessed to the hijacking of an oil tanker.”

The Foreign Ministry recalled that this is not the first time he has admitted this, stating that “during his 2024 campaign, he openly affirmed that his objective has always been to seize Venezuelan oil without paying anything in return, making it clear that the policy of aggression against our country is part of a deliberate plan to plunder our energy resources.”

The Venezuelan National Assembly expressed its criticism of the robbery of the Venezuelan corporation #CITGO Petroleum by the U.S. government and leaders of the national fascist far-right. On Tuesday, the Plenary resolved to request that the National Executive that the… pic.twitter.com/uW30ySV6pe

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 2, 2025

It also denounced that this new criminal act adds to the theft of Citgo, an important asset of the strategic patrimony of all Venezuelans, seized through fraudulent judicial mechanisms and outside the bounds of any legal framework.

He maintained that in these circumstances, “the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”

#Caribbean | The United States Department of War abandons all pretenses and turns to full-fledged piracy, all while the U.S. House of Representatives passes an almost $1 trillion war budget. pic.twitter.com/ug0FfLIF6N

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 11, 2025

The statement reiterates the call to all Venezuelans to remain steadfast in defense of the homeland and urges the international community “to reject this vandalistic, illegal, and unprecedented aggression that they seek to normalize as a tool of pressure and plunder.”

The Bolivarian Government reaffirms that it will appeal to all existing international bodies to denounce “this grave international crime” and will defend “with absolute determination its sovereignty, its natural resources, and its national dignity.”

Venezuela – the statement concludes – “will not allow any foreign power to attempt to deprive the Venezuelan people of what belongs to them by historical and constitutional right.”

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.