“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela – a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually,” said Donald Trump on December 10. In a dramatic operation, US forces had just taken over an oil tanker called Skipper, which was sanctioned by the US in 2022 while sailing under a different name. “I assume we’re going to keep the oil,” the US president added later.
Venezuela has been under US-imposed sanctions since 2019, when Trump was first in the White House. And recent months have seen US forces target several vessels in the Caribbean, predominantly off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, each alleged to be trafficking drugs from the region. These strikes have killed more than 80 people so far.
The seizure of the Skipper marks the latest episode in the increasingly hostile relationship between Trump and Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. But what does international law have to say about the seizure?
