Tensions in the Caribbean

Sources: US preparing to board oil tanker

The US Coast Guard has called in reinforcements in the hunt for the sanctioned Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Bella 1, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

According to the US, the ship is used to transport oil between Iran and Venezuela. The ship has been followed for five days, but the captain is not responding to attempts to contact it and because of its enormous size, the Coast Guard needs help. According to the information, elite soldiers trained to board ships have been called in.

Trump has imposed a blockade of oil tankers to and from Venezuela, and two ships have already been seized.

The oil blockade — the point

• The US seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela earlier in December, which was described as a sharp escalation in the conflict between the countries.
• President Donald Trump ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers to and from Venezuela, leaving ships carrying millions of barrels of oil stranded in Venezuelan waters.
• Venezuela condemned the interventions, calling them acts of piracy and international piracy, and vowed to respond with measures and complaints to the UN Security Council.
• The seized ships were on the US sanctions list and were suspected of oil smuggling; one of them had tried to hide its location and was transporting oil from Venezuela to Cuba and China.
• The blockade has hit Cuba hard, which gets about 70 percent of its oil from Venezuela, and is now at risk of economic collapse, according to experts.