US seizes 2nd oil tanker in 2 weeks off Venezuela coast

(I asked Google AI what gives the U.S. the authority to sanction other nations and it came back with an explanation of specific U.S. laws that give the PRESIDENT authority IN THE U.S. to impose sanctions... but failed to answer my question. What gives the U.S. international authority to sanction other countries? Why should any other nation respect those declared sanctions as if they are legitimate international law? The UNSC can issue sanctions like they try to do against Israel all the time but the U.S. unilaterally imposing a sanction against Venezuela because TrumpyBear wants to steal their oil? That's just piracy. Is it any wonder that other nations are turning away from the U.S. these days and turning to countries like Russia and China? They don't unilaterally sanction anyone to my knowledge. This is absurdly illegal and immoral.)

from Daily Sabah

The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, a move Caracas denounced as “theft and kidnapping,” as Washington intensified its pressure campaign, U.S. officials said.

It was the second time in two weeks that U.S. forces had interdicted a tanker in the region and came days after President Donald Trump announced a blockade of "sanctioned oil vessels" heading to and leaving Venezuela.

"In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the U.S. Coast Guard, with the support of the Department of War, apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela," U.S. Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said in a post on X.

The post was accompanied by a nearly eight-minute video of aerial footage that showed a helicopter hovering just above the deck of a large tanker at sea.

Caracas slammed the seizure as theft and kidnapping, saying "those responsible for these serious events will answer to justice and to history for their criminal conduct."

A post from Homeland Security identified the vessel as the Centuries and said it was "suspected of carrying oil subject to U.S. sanctions."

Centuries is a Chinese-owned, Panama-flagged oil tanker, according to TankerTrackers, an online service monitoring oil shipments and storage...

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