Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has accused the United States of “kidnapping” crew members after the seizure of an oil tanker, calling the act a threat not only to his country, but to global trade and respect for international law.

Maduro said he believes the American people will restrain the “warmongers” pushing for a war over oil in South America, as tensions over resources have come to the forefront in the U.S.-Venezuela standoff.

Newsweek contacted the U.S. State Department via email outside of working hours for comment.

Why It Matters

U.S. forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on December 10, calling it “the largest one ever seized” and signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas.

The U.S. is leading an aggressive military counter-narcotics campaign in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific while increasing pressure on Maduro’s regime, which it views as illegitimate and linked to drugs and corruption.

Venezuela, in turn, says the U.S. is using the campaign as a pretext to unlawfully seize control of the country’s oil reserves, the largest in the world concentrated in the Orinoco River Basin. Maduro called the tanker seizure an “act of piracy.“

What To Know

Maduro vowed that Venezuela would stand firm against “attacks, threats and now robberies,” on Monday during his weekly program Con Maduro, broadcast on the state‑run channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

He said 96 percent of Venezuelans reject the U.S. seizure and consider it “a theft of the nation’s assets,” a Venezuelan government website reported Monday.

Venezuela accused the U.S. of orchestrating a cyberattack on its state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela on Monday. The oil ministry said operations were unaffected and that “the U.S. has attempted to affect national stability and steal Christmas from the Venezuelan people.”

The M/T Skipper seized by U.S. Coast Guard, was a sanctioned crude-oil tanker previously identified as part of an oil shipping network supporting Lebanese group Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.

Venezuela’s oil exports fell sharply after the incident, with several tankers reversing course, Reuters reported this week, but oil already headed to China, Venezuela’s largest buyer, could limit the seizure’s impact on the Chinese market.

What People Are Saying

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Monday, according to VTV: “Today we have kidnapped and disappeared crew members. Where is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court? They robbed a private boat with weapons and the crew members have been missing for five days; we don’t know if they are being tortured.”

Venezuela’s Oil Ministry in a statement on Monday on Facebook: “Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. informs the Venezuelan people and the international community that the company was the target of a cyberattack aimed at halting its operations…This attempt at aggression adds to the U.S. government’s public strategy of seizing Venezuelan oil by force and piracy.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Friday statement: “The seizure of this vessel highlights our successful efforts to impose costs on the governments of Venezuela and Iran.”

What Happens Next

The U.S. said it will continue intercepting vessels transporting Venezuelan oil, according to Reuters.