Why the US Claims the Vessel Was Illicit

What’s going on between the United States and Venezuela? The Trump administration has been defending its seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast. In a dramatic video shared by the US Attorney General, armed camouflaged soldiers are shown swinging down ropes from low flying helicopters, and running along the vessel’s decks.

The US claims the tanker is used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran in an "illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations". The Venezuela government in response has called the seizure blatant theft, claiming Trump is after the country’s rich oil and energy resources.

In this episode, Sarah and Justin unpack how far Donald Trump is willing to go in his ongoing campaign against the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. In recent months, the US president has accused Maduro of “forcing” criminals into the US and facilitating drug smuggling, which Maduro denies. And this week, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the killing of over 80 people in US military strikes on alleged drug boats as the “Al Qaeda of our hemisphere”.

The Americast team also look at how this fits in with other South American countries, with Trump recently offering Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández a ‘full and complete pardon’.

Presenter: Justin Webb, and Sarah Smith

Get in touch: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email Americast@bbc.co.uk • Or use #Americast

This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd