New journalistic revelations confirm that the recent seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean is not a new development, but rather a continuation of a strategy that began in 2019, when operatives close to Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself president of Venezuela and unsuccessfully attempted to establish a kind of parallel government — —backed by Washington — proposed the hijacking of ships transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba.
American journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone, published a document obtained by that outlet containing an FBI interview with Timothy Roen Kraft, a businessman identified in the report as having ties to intelligence circles. According to the transcript, two close associates of Guaidó presented Kraft with a plan to hijack two oil tankers, whose crews had already been co-opted, with the objective of diverting the ships to the U.S. Virgin Islands and handing them over to U.S. authorities.
The report details that Kraft responded favorably but demanded a formal letter from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join the operation. The letter never arrived. The plan, however, was not abandoned: according to The Grayzone investigation, it was revived during Donald Trump’s second term, when the operation came under the purview of Marco Rubio, in his dual role as Secretary of State and Director of the National Security Council.
Blumenthal states that Rubio authorized a “less elegant” variant: a direct military boarding operation, very similar to the one carried out last week, when U.S. forces seized an oil tanker near the Venezuelan coast.
The leak gained immediate relevance following statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who described the most recent seizure as an act requiring urgent explanations from Washington. Lavrov noted that, despite the US rhetoric on “transparency and security,” companies like Chevron continue to operate and purchase Venezuelan crude, further undermining the justification for a military confiscation operation.
The Venezuelan president, for his part, denounced the act as “international piracy” and an open attempt to seize his country’s resources.
Background: The Guaidó Laboratory
The revelation also sheds light on the nature of the operations carried out by Guaidó’s parallel structure since 2019, which were not limited to blocking Venezuelan assets and funds, but also included plans for direct action on maritime oil routes, subject to surveillance and political pressure by the U.S.
The FBI document confirms that the proposals to businessman Kraft sought not only to seize oil, but also to set a precedent of force that would legitimize future interdictions. The goal was clear: to activate an economic-strategic pincer movement that would prevent Venezuela from supplying crude oil to its allies — in this case, Cuba — and simultaneously present the operation as an act of “cooperation” with U.S. justice.
This week’s operation follows the same logic. According to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the tanker was detained “to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil,” a formulation that repeats almost verbatim the arguments that Guaidó and his team put forward five years ago.
But the novelty is the direct involvement of the US military apparatus, which according to The Grayzone responds to Rubio’s political decision and the strengthening of the economic Pentagon within Trump’s National Security Strategy.
IMAGE CREDIT: “The hijacking of Venezuelan oil tankers was first proposed by Juan Guaidó’s group and backed by the CIA in 2019,” asserts journalist Max Blumenthal, based on documents obtained by The Gray Zone. Photo: EFE
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
