{"id":17966,"date":"2026-01-21T07:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/u-s-seizes-another-oil-tanker-in-the-caribbean-with-alleged-ties-to-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:22:13","slug":"u-s-seizes-another-oil-tanker-in-the-caribbean-with-alleged-ties-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/u-s-seizes-another-oil-tanker-in-the-caribbean-with-alleged-ties-to-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. seizes another oil tanker in the Caribbean with alleged ties to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-01-20T18:01:09-05:00\">Jan. 20, 2026, 6:01 PM EST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The U.S. military on Tuesday apprehended a seventh oil tanker with ties to Venezuela, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Southcom\/status\/2013718812424630376\">said in a post on<\/a> X that military forces seized the tanker, known as Motor Vessel Sagitta, &ldquo;without incident&rdquo; on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>In its announcement, SOUTHCOM said the seizure &ldquo;demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The apprehension of another tanker operating in defiance of President Trump&rsquo;s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,&rdquo; the military statement said.<\/p>\n<p>The incident marked the seventh oil tanker apprehended by the U.S. as part of a bid to stop Venezuela&rsquo;s oil exports and exert greater control over the country. The U.S. military <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/u-s-seizes-sixth-venezuela-linked-oil-tanker\">seized a sixth tanker last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The ramped-up American effort follows the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/nicolas-maduro-to-make-first-appearance-in-new-york-court-monday\">capture of ousted President Nicol&aacute;s Maduro by U.S. forces<\/a> on Jan. 3. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are currently being held in prison in Brooklyn and have pleaded not guilty to a spate of charges brought by the U.S. government, including drug trafficking and weapons possession.<\/p>\n<p>Since their arrest, President Donald Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/venezuela-oil-trump-administration\">said he wants the U.S. to indefinitely control Venezuela&rsquo;s oil production and sales<\/a>but experts have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/trump-oil-venezuela\">expressed doubt that the plan will work<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/u-s-seizes-another-oil-tanker-with-alleged-ties-to-venezuela-in-caribbean\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 20, 2026, 6:01 PM EST The U.S. military on Tuesday apprehended a seventh oil tanker with ties to Venezuela, officials said. The U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a post on X that military forces seized the tanker, known as Motor Vessel Sagitta, &ldquo;without incident&rdquo; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}