U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker, Sanctions Maduro's Family
Dec. 12, 2025
U.S. forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday. It is a major escalation in the U.S. Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela, which called the seizure “an act of international piracy.
Yesterday the U.S. unveiled a new round of sanctions aimed at tightening pressure on Maduro, targeting three nephews of First Lady Cilia Flores, a network of foreign business partners and a cluster of overseas shipping companies that U.S. officials say have helped move sanctioned Venezuelan oil through covert maritime routes, reports the Miami Herald.
The moves appeared to signal a new stage in the Trump administration’s effort to oust Maduro “by strangling with sanctions and military pressure an economy that relies heavily on overseas oil sales, primarily to China,” reports the Washington Post.
It could “signal a broader U.S. campaign to clamp down on ships like the Skipper, which experts and U.S. officials say is part of a shadowy fleet of rusting oil tankers that smuggle oil for countries facing stiff sanctions, such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran,” reports the Associated Press.
The U.S. actions this week “most likely will reduce the number of tankers that are willing to load oil in Venezuela, further isolating a country that depends heavily on the revenue it receives from exporting the fossil fuel,” reports the New York Times.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Maduro yesterday to “reaffirm” Russia’s support for the current Venezuelan government. (Guardian)
Senior Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican have condemned the seizure of the oil tanker, with one saying Trump was “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.” Others voiced concern over inconsistencies in what the U.S. government has characterized as a crackdown on drug trafficking: “So they can seize an oil tanker, but not a drug boat?” said Democratic Senator Mark Warner. (Guardian)
Yet, an oil blockade could be an effective alternative to the land strike the Trump administration has repeatedly put on the table, Juan González told the Guardian.
Indeed, “it’s important to recognize that this seizure, though aggressive, appears to have been done appropriately under US law (ignore international law and maritime rules for the moment),” writes James Bosworth in Latin America Risk Report. “Unlike so many other things occurring right now, the paperwork for this operation was done correctly under the US rules and the administration seems to have largely thought it through. It wasn’t an act of war; it was a law enforcement operation. Nobody was injured or killed. No boats were sunk.”
Speaking in Oslo a day after receiving the Nobel Peace prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado praised the seizure, saying Maduro used Venezuela’s oil wealth to sustain his dictatorship and repress opponents. (Guardian)
Venezuela
Asked about the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Machado said “Venezuela has already been invaded.” (Washington Post)
Machado escaped Venezuela for Oslo — after a year and a half in hiding from the increasingly repressive Maduro government — via a perilous 10 hour car journey past nearly a dozen military checkpoints and disguised with a wig, until a coastal fishing village where she travelled by wooden skiff to Curaçao, and from there via jet to Norway, with a stop in Maine, in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We had support from the United States government,” Machado told reporters in Oslo. (New York Times)
People organizing her escape said they notified the U.S. military of her boat trip before setting out to avoid the kind of airstrike that has hit more than 22 similar vessels in the past three months, killing more than 87 people, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Machado’s “decision to flee along one of Venezuela’s most treacherous people-smuggling routes was a highly symbolic one, which shone a light on the migration crisis she has promised to end through her dogged campaign for political change,” reports the Guardian.
Regional Relations
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke last week with Maduro about the situation in the Caribbean and South America, the Brazilian government said yesterday. The call was their first since before last year’s presidential election in Venezuela. At the time, the Brazilian government and international observers contested Maduro’s self-proclaimed reelection. (Reuters)
In a radio interview yesterday, Colombia’s foreign affairs minister, Rosa Villavicencio, indicated her government would be willing to offer Maduro a place to live or “protection” if needed. (Guardian)
Chile Heads to the Polls
Chileans will vote in a second-round presidential election on Sunday — far-right candidate José Antonio Kast — a veteran politician, Pinochet apologist, devout Catholic and father of nine — is widely expected to win against the ruling leftist coalition candidate Jeanette Jara.
It is Kast’s third attempt at the presidency, he has been favored this time by fears of organized crime and immigration driving voters to the right, reports the Associated Press.
Kast has promised to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants, reports AFP. He has also vowed to build a wall on the Bolivian border, give police more firepower, and send troops into critical areas.
This time Kast has dodged questions about his social views — including his fierce opposition to abortion and equal marriage rights, as well as nostalgia for Pinochet — pivoting to the more politically palatable issues of insecurity and mass migration
Nonetheless, while Kast’s Republican Party and other far-right parties gained clout in both houses of Congress during the November vote, the legislature is split between right- and left-wing parties and will require deal-making to pass reforms, notes Reuters.
Honduras’ Election Failures
Nearly two weeks after Honduras’ presidential election, there is still no official result. Election officials will carry out a special recount of a percentage of disputed tally sheets, likely starting on Saturday, reports Reuters.
With the vast majority of Honduras’ votes counted, conservative National Party candidate, Nasry Asfura, has a 42,000 lead over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla. The recount will focus on 2,773 tally sheets - roughly 15% of the total - enough to alter the results. (La Tribuna)
The LIBRE coalition candidate, Rixi Moncada, was a distant third, regardless of who wins the presidency, the results are a clear punishment for the ruling party, notes the Associated Press.
A lengthy and messy counting process has marred the proceedings, allowing politicians — including President Xiomara Castro — to allege irregularities.
On Wednesday a Congressional panel threatened not to recognize the results — A majority of members must validate the election result by December 30, otherwise the country’s Congress could intervene.
More Regional Relations
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that about 152,600 migrants have been sent to Mexico since Trump took office in January, including non-Mexicans. (Reuters)
Mexico’s Congress authorized up to 50 percent tariffs on Chinese imports, a move seen as an effort to align Mexico with the United States amid pressure from Washington, reports the New York Times.
Analysts and the private sector say the move is aimed at appeasing the U.S. ahead of the next review of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), and that it is also intended to generate $3.76 billion in additional revenue next year as Mexico seeks to reduce its fiscal deficit, reports Reuters.
France is pushing to delay the conclusion of a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc in a move that could derail the deal, reports Bloomberg.
The British government denied it is engaged in negotiations to lift a ban on selling arms to Argentina that has been in place since the Falklands war, after Argentine President Javier Milei told the Daily Telegraph his government had begun speaking to the UK about the restrictions - Guardian
Argentina
The Argentine government has filed a labor reform bill aimed at loosening employment regulations and discouraging litigation against employers in a bid to make it easier for companies to hire people, reports the Buenos Aires Herald.
Inflation accelerated for the third straight month in Argentina even after Milei’s midterm victory as beef, transport and energy prices rose. (Bloomberg)
Brazil
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad could leave his role to work on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s 2026 presidential campaign, he told the newspaper O Globo yesterday. (Reuters)
El Salvador
Elon Musk is partnering with El Salvador’s Bukele administration to bring his artificial intelligence company’s chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country. Over the next two years, the plan is to “deploy” the chatbot to more than 5,000 public schools in an “AI-powered education program.” (Guardian)
Haiti
Gang rapes are still surging in Haiti, an emergency of “catastrophic proportions, medical providers and leaders of feminist groups say. They describe turning away rape survivors because of limited shelter beds, scraping together funding to keep doors open and wrestling with keeping mental-health staffers, some of whom can’t deal with the trauma that they see daily,” reports the Miami Herald.
Hurricane Melissa related food shortages and crop losses are further impacting Haitians, who were already going hungry because gang violence has blocked highways and cut off commerce, the regional director of the United Nations’ World Food Program said yesterday during a visit to the country - Miami Herald
Bolivia
Bolivia’s former president Luis Arce was detained on Wednesday on charges that he “enabled illicit enrichment” by allegedly allowing state funds earmarked for Indigenous communities to be transferred into government officials’ personal accounts. (Guardian)
Migration
Kilmar Abrego García was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody yesterday after a federal judge ruled his continued detention was unlawful — Washington Post
The ruling marks a significant legal win for Abrego, whose previous wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador turned him into a symbol of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, reports the Guardian.