Satellite photo shows US ships enforcing Trump’s Venezuela blockade
New satellite imagery shows U.S. Navy warships maneuvering in the Caribbean Sea near the Gulf of Venezuela as part of fleet operations involving the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).
The maneuvers included the participation of the MV Ocean Trader, a special warfare support vessel used by U.S. Special Operations Forces, according to open-source intelligence analyst sources.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has ordered a ‘total and complete blockade’ of all U.S.‑sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers entering or leaving the country, escalating pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government. The move follows U.S. seizures of Venezuelan crude and a growing naval presence off Venezuela’s coast. Caracas condemned the blockade framing it as an effort to undermine Venezuelan sovereignty and seize its oil wealth.
What To Know
The USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) vessels were spotted along with the MV Ocean Trader, according to open-source intelligence analyst account SA Defensa on X. Nicknamed a “ghost ship” because it often operates without public tracking or naval markings, the MV Ocean Trader was deployed to the Caribbean in September, according to defense news outlets.
The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, including USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio, is operating in the region alongside two guided‑missile destroyers, USS Thomas Hudner and USS Stockdale, and guided‑missile cruisers USS Lake Erie and USS Gettysburg, according to the U.S. Naval Institute tracked vessels.
Carrier Strike Group USS Gerald R. Ford, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has been operating in the Caribbean Sea. The Trump administration says military deployment to the Caribbean comes in support of the U.S. Southern Command mission, including Operation Southern Spear to disrupt illicit drug trafficking.
Criticism has mounted over U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which, since early September, have involved nearly 29 reported operations and resulted in at least 105 deaths, according to The Associated Press.
The U.N. Security Council held a session on Tuesday amid rising tensions over U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and interceptions of Venezuelan oil tankers. The Venezuelan navy began escorting oil tankers after Washington stepped up its campaign targeting its oil, which Caracas described as a “unilateral naval blockade,” the U.N. said.
What People Are Saying
Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N., told the session Tuesday, according to Reuters: “The threat is not Venezuela. The threat is the U.S. government.”
Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said: “It is the action and policies of the illegitimate Maduro regime that pose an extraordinary threat to our hemisphere’s peace and stability and to that of the United States.”
Human Rights Watch said in December: “The Trump administration claims the boats are carrying ‘narco-traffickers’ who belong to groups it has designated as terrorist organizations under U.S. law. But the U.S. government has neither identified the people killed in any of the cases nor demonstrated that those killed in the strikes were doing anything that could justify the use of lethal force.”
What Happens Next
The White House has ordered U.S. forces to focus on a two-month ‘quarantine’ of Venezuelan oil. So far this month, the Coast Guard has intercepted two fully loaded tankers, with a third, the Bella-1, pending additional forces, according to Reuters.
Waltz said his that his country will eradicate drug cartels, “which have operated with impunity in our hemisphere for far too long,” and that maximum sanctions will be imposed “to deprive Maduro of the resources he uses to fund Cartel de Los Soles,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
