The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, along with six crude oil tankers and associated shipping companies. The action coincided with a large-scale US military buildup in the southern Caribbean and President Donald Trump’s campaign for Maduro’s ouster. On Wednesday Trump said the US had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Reuters reported. The US Treasury Department said in a statement it imposed sanctions on six shipping companies moving Venezuelan oil, and on six crude oil tankers that it said “have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.” Four of the tankers, including the 2002-built H. Constance and the 2003-built Lattafa, are Panama-flagged, with the other two flagged by the Cook Islands and Hong Kong. The targeted vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela, according to internal shipping documents of state oil company PDVSA. Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, were also sanctioned. The two were detained in Haiti in 2015 in a US Drug Enforcement Administration operation, convicted in 2016 of attempting a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but released in a 2022 prison swap with Venezuela. A third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, sanctioned for his alleged role in a corruption plot at PDVSA, was also designated. Wednesday’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil cargo was the first under US sanctions in force since 2019 and the first known tanker action by the Trump administration since the military buildup. The administration plans further tanker seizures, according to sources. US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that the FBI, Homeland Security and Coast Guard, backed by the US military, carried out a warrant authorising the seizure of a crude tanker transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. The move sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.President Maduro on Thursday slammed the US seizure of an oil tanker from his country, calling it an act of “naval piracy” that escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.”They kidnapped the crew, stole the ship and have inaugurated a new era, the era of criminal naval piracy in the Caribbean,” Maduro said at a presidential event, adding “Venezuela will secure all ships to guarantee the free trade of its oil around the world.” Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, accusing it of sending narcotics to the United States. The US has already conducted more than 20 strikes against suspected drug vessels, raising concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
