U.S. intercepts a tanker in the Indian Ocean for violating Washington’s blockade in the Caribbean

Washington.- The United States Department of War announced this Monday that it intercepted in the Indian Ocean an oil tanker that, according to Washington, violated the limitations imposed by the Government of President Donald Trump for crude oil transfers in the Caribbean that affect Venezuela and Cuba. According to a post on X, the U.S. Armed Forces carried out “an inspection, a maritime interdiction, and the boarding of the Aquila II without incident in the area of responsibility of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom).” The War Department explains in the message that “the Aquila II was operating in defiance of the quarantine limits imposed by President Trump on sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.” “He tried to escape, but we followed him. The War Department tracked and pursued this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. No other nation on the planet has the ability to impose its will in any domain. By land, sea, or air, our Armed Forces will find them and bring them to justice. They will run out of fuel long before they can escape us,” the statement adds.

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Since December 2025, the United States has been applying a maritime “quarantine” on sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, within the so-called Operation Lanza del Sur, in which at least seven ships have already been boarded or seized.

Trump himself signed an executive order to punish with tariffs the countries that send crude oil to Cuba, a pressure mechanism that is strangling the island. The stated goal is to prevent the sale of Venezuelan oil outside of channels authorized by Washington and cut off revenue to networks considered allies of Russia, Iran, or Cuba itself. “When the War Department says quarantine, we mean it. Nothing will prevent the War Department from defending our homeland, not even oceans on the other side of the world,” official sources insisted from their X account.