U.S. military seizes 2 oil tankers; Trump says country will turn over up to 50 million barrels

The U.S. military has seized two oil tankers linked to Venezuela in successive actions in the Caribbean and North Atlantic.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. forces boarded a Russian-flagged ship in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, seized the vessel and turned over control to law enforcement. The U.S. military had been pursuing the tanker since last month, when it evaded a U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.

Separately, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted another Venezuela-linked tanker in Latin American waters, Reuters reported.

The seizures come days after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a brazen overnight military operation, prompting questions over who is in control of the Latin American country and its vast oil reserves.

Writing late Tuesday on social media, Trump said Venezuela would soon be “turning over” about two months’ worth of oil — 30 to 50 million barrels — to the United States.

America’s intervention in Venezuela has also reignited tensions around Trump’s long-stated desire to make Greenland part of the United States. The White House stated in a press release that military force “is always an option” for annexing the massive, semiautonomous Arctic island, which Trump claims the U.S. needs for national security reasons.

European leaders stood firm in their stance that citizens of the Danish territory should decide their own fate.

“Greenland belongs to its people,” they wrote in a joint statement.

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