Trump threatens Colombia, and Petro responds: “My government has seized 2,700 tons of cocaine so far. (…) It’s the largest seizure in the history of the world.”
14ymedio/EFE, Washington/Caracas/Bogotá, December 11, 2025 — The United States increased pressure on Venezuela on Wednesday by intercepting and seizing an oil tanker off the coast of the South American country, as part of the naval and military deployment that Washington has maintained in the Caribbean since last August. The ship, according to the British news agency Reuters, had already unloaded 200,000 barrels of oil destined for Cuba.
The tanker, named Skipper and sailing under a false Guyanese flag, departed the Venezuelan oil port of José between December 4 and 5, after loading approximately 1.8 million barrels of Merey heavy crude. According to satellite data and information from the state oil company PDVSA, 200,000 barrels were transferred near Curaçao to the Neptuno 6 — flying the Panamanian flag — whose final destination was Cuba.
The data clarifies the confusion generated by reports from Washington that pointed to Havana as an intermediary or recipient of the crude oil. A source told The Washington Post that the ship was headed to Cuba, although the newspaper made it clear that the information could not be confirmed. Axios also suggested the possibility that the oil was going to the island, though it based this on the usual cooperation, without providing more concrete details. CNN, meanwhile, argued that the tanker was headed to Cuba but with its final destination being Asia, “after being negotiated through Cuban vendors.” The news outlet attributed the information to a U.S. official.
The announcement was made by Trump himself: “We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a big, very big oil tanker, the biggest ever seized, actually,” declared US President Donald Trump at the start of a roundtable discussion with business leaders at the White House.
According to The New York Times, the Skipper was seized by order of a US judge for its previous links to the smuggling of Iranian oil, sanctioned by Washington, although on this occasion it was transporting Venezuelan crude.
The Venezuelan government described the confiscation of the oil tanker as a “blatant robbery” and warned that it would appeal to international bodies to denounce this “serious international crime.”
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that this “act of piracy” seeks to distract attention and “cover up the resounding failure” of what it called a ” political show staged today in Oslo,” where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Speaking during a session of the People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace, Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stated that the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Machado is a “prize stained with blood.”
For his part, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro expressed his gratitude for the marches that took place in Oslo against the award given to the former congresswoman.
Maduro, in a speech to hundreds of supporters, demanded on Wednesday the “cessation of illegal and brutal interventionism,” as Trump warned his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, that he would be “next,” alluding to the pressure his government is exerting on Venezuela.
“From Venezuela we demand an end to regime change policies, coups d’état, and invasions around the world.”
“From Venezuela we demand, enough of regime change policies, coups d’état and invasions in the world,” said the Chavista leader at the close of a peasant march through the streets of Caracas, on the occasion of the 166th anniversary of the Battle of Santa Inés.
The president asserted that times of unity with Colombia are coming to carry out the “true Bolivarian revolution” and indicated that “sooner rather than later” Gran Colombia, a state formed by both South American nations between 1819 and 1831, must be refounded for the “emancipation of all South America.”
Trump, who has maintained a military deployment in the Caribbean since last August, under the pretext of combating drug trafficking and which Caracas calls a “threat,” warned Petro that he will be “next” and ruled out speaking soon with the Colombian president, who has criticized him on several occasions for his actions against Venezuela.
“He has been quite hostile toward the United States,” Trump responded when asked about his Colombian counterpart, whom he warned saying “he’s going to have big problems if he doesn’t realize” that Colombia is “producing a lot of drugs.”
Petro, for his part, responded to the American in a televised message. “Trump is very misinformed about Colombia. It’s a shame, because he dismisses the country that knows the most about cocaine trafficking. It seems his interlocutors are completely deceiving him,” Petro said, reading from a text he said he would publish in X during a televised Cabinet meeting.
Petro highlighted that during his administration, which began on August 7, 2022, there have been “1,446 ground battles against the mafias” and “13 bombings trying to locate their leaders, many of these battles with shared military intelligence.”
“That’s 2,700 tons of cocaine seized by my government so far. The 2025 seizures are almost over, and we still have months left in 2026, so we’re going to approach 4,000 tons,” said the Colombian president, who stated that this is “the largest seizure in the history of the world.”
He also stated that he has never been “hostile to the United States that fights for freedom and democracy,” but that he does not accept “impositions, and even less so those based on the misinformation of people who take advice from Colombian politicians allied with the mafias or from former military personnel who are responsible for major actions of destruction against human rights and businesses.”
In September, Trump removed Colombia from the list of countries that cooperate in the fight against drugs and subsequently sanctioned Petro, whom he accused of being a “leader in drug trafficking.”
With today’s message, the US president puts Colombia in the crosshairs of Operation Southern Spear, which he ordered under the pretext of combating drug trafficking in Latin America.
Since September, the U.S. Armed Forces have destroyed more than 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific, near Venezuela and Colombia, killing more than 80 crew members.
In this regard, Petro, who is a critic of that operation, stated that “it is not true that missiles on speedboats are being used to fight narco-terrorists.”
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.