The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounced the United States seizure of an oil tanker as "brazen theft and an act of international piracy" publicly announced by President Donald Trump, in a statement shared during the 30-minute reporting window ending at 12:16 a.m. UTC on December 11, 2025, claiming it responds to a deliberate plan to dispossess Venezuelan wealth. Venezuela's foreign ministry statement, posted on X, accused the US president of confessing to the assault on the tanker in the Caribbean Sea and noted it is not the first such admission, according to AlertaMundoNews and Alberto Rodolfo News reports in the window from 11:45 p.m. UTC on December 10 to 12:16 a.m. UTC on December 11. Separately, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado arrived in Oslo, Norway, as shown in an image shared by @IndigoyAzul on X during the reporting window, ahead of her anticipated 1:00 a.m. UTC address from the Grand Hotel balcony announced by her press team on December 10. The denunciation follows the US agencies' seizure of the Venezuelan oil tanker 'The Skipper' off the country's coast earlier on December 10 for transporting sanctioned oil linked to Iran and foreign terrorist organizations, as confirmed in an official statement shared by Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
