Early on the morning of Dec. 20, U.S. Coast Guard personnel boarded and seized control of a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker located off the coast of Venezuela on grounds that the vessel, which was carrying Venezuelan oil, was sanctioned. On Dec.16, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would carry out a “complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers moving in or out of Venezuela. On Dec. 10, the Coast Guard had seized another Venezuelan tanker, named Skipper, which it claimed was a sanctioned vessel.
However, according to the New York Times, there is no evidence that the tanker seized on Dec. 20, Centuries, was sanctioned. Its name does not appear on any U.S. list of sanctioned entities kept by the U.S. Treasury, and U.S. Coast Guard personnel who boarded the Centuries did not have a seizure warrant to take possession of the vessel. The tanker’s crew was detained.