image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Leire Sales
- Author title, BBC News Mundo correspondent in Los Angeles
The Venezuelan government described the seizure of an oil tanker by US forces this Wednesday off the coast of the South American country as “brazen theft and an act of international piracy”.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly condemns and rejects what constitutes a brazen theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States, who confessed to the attack on an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea,” said a statement released by the government of Nicolás Maduro.
“It is not the first time he has admitted this. Already in his 2024 election campaign, he openly stated that his goal was always to keep Venezuelan oil without paying compensation for it, making it clear that the policy of aggression against our country responds to a deliberate plan to plunder our energy wealth,” the note said.
“We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large, very large oil tanker; in fact, the largest ever seized,” the US president told the press at the White House.
A senior US Army commander told CBS News, the BBC’s American partner, that the mission launched from a military ship and involved two helicopters, 10 Coast Guard members, 10 Marines and special forces.
image source, US government
Venezuela’s answer
In its statement on Wednesday, the government of Venezuela assured that “under these circumstances, the real reasons for the ongoing aggression against Venezuela have finally come to light,” he added.
“It’s not migration. It’s not drug trafficking. It’s not democracy. It’s not human rights. It’s always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
The Venezuelan government again called on citizens to “remain steadfast in the defense of the homeland” and called on the international community to reject what it sees as “vandalistic, illegal and unprecedented aggression.”
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