US forces seize oil tanker off Venezuela coast
www.theguardian.com

... Move is major escalation of US pressure campaign against South American country's dictator, Nicols Maduro.

US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign against the South American country's dictator, Nicols Maduro.

The US president confirmed the operation on Wednesday, telling reporters: "We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela - a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually. And other things are happening so you will be seeing that later and you will be talking about that later with other people."

Two US officials told Reuters the operation was led by the US Coast Guard, but did not name the tanker or say specifically where the interception happened. A senior Trump administration official told Bloomberg that the US had conducted a "judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel" that was last docked in Venezuela. ...

In defiant flyover, US F-18 fighter jets enter Venezuelan airspace for 40 minutes
www.stripes.com

... Two U.S. F-18 fighter jets flying in tandem entered Venezuelan airspace around noon Tuesday, circling over the Gulf of Venezuela in the latest show of force against the regime of Nicols Maduro.

The flyover -- carried out despite the Venezuelan regime's possession of a number of Russian-made anti-aircraft batteries -- took place less than 100 miles northeast of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city. Thousands of Venezuelans tracked the aircraft online through specialized tracking websites, watching as the jets traced a bow-tie-shaped pattern over the gulf.

The fighters remained inside Venezuelan airspace for at least 40 minutes at an altitude of roughly 25,000 feet before heading north and leaving the area.

The U.S. fighter jets flew between two key regions for Venezuela's energy sector, Zulia and Falcon states. Lake Maracaibo, whose 5,000 square miles make it of the largest fresh bodies of water on the continent, is the cradle of reserves of some 150 billion barrels of crude oil. ...