A third oil tanker in the Caribbean was boarded and seized Sunday by the U.S. military as the Trump administration’s military threats against Venezuela continue to escalate, Bloomberg reported.
The vessel is known as the “Bella 1,” a sea vessel sanctioned by the United States that was headed to Venezuela to be loaded up with oil, according to a person “with knowledge of the matter” who spoke with Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
The seizure comes just one day after the administration seized another sea vessel in the Caribbean, and less than two weeks after the administration’s first seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. President Donald Trump ordered a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers coming from and leaving Venezuela last week.
Trump has ramped up military threats against Venezuela in recent months, launching a number of deadly strikes on suspected drug-carrying vessels that have killed at least 95 people, closed the nation’s airspace, deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to Venezuela’s coast, and suggested U.S. land operations in the South American “very soon.” Trump has also considered assassinating its president, Nicolas Maduro.