THE United States seized a second tanker carrying Venezuelan oil on Saturday in a move Caracas dubbed a “serious act of international piracy.”

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the seizure, claiming Washington was cracking down on the “illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism.” She also posted a video showing US helicopters landing on the Panama-flagged tanker Centuries.

Unlike Skipper, the tanker headed for Cuba seized by the US military on December 10, Centuries was not on a list of sanctioned vessels. However the list has no international legal standing anyway, since only sanctions authorised by the UN security council do. The forcible interruption of trade between sovereign countries is a violation of international law.

The US has provided no evidence that Venezuelan oil revenues fund either the (intrinsically profitable) illegal drug trade or cartel violence.

It claims Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro heads a criminal organisation called the Cartel de los Soles, but not only Venezuela but other regional countries including Colombia and Mexico say there is no evidence such an organisation exists.

In social media posts, US President Donald Trump has indicated that Venezuela’s oil reserves, the world’s largest, are the real motivation for his escalating aggression against the country, which have included a massive military build-up in the Caribbean and a series of lethal boat bombings that have killed over 80 people accused, again without evidence, of transporting drugs.

Mr Trump said last week Venezuela must return “the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us.” This may refer to Venezuela’s 1976 nationalisation of the industry or the extension of public ownership over Venezuelan assets of foreign companies involved in the oil sector via collaboration agreements under socialist revolutionary Hugo Chavez in the 1990s. Both affected the holdings of US companies, including ConocoPhillips and Exxon-Mobil.

The Venezuelan government denounced “the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel carrying Venezuelan oil, as well as the enforced disappearance of its crew, committed by United States military personnel in international waters.”

It has called on the United Nations to stop the US theft of its resources and said at the weekend it had received an offer of co-operation “to confront piracy and international terrorism” from Iran.