US Military Killed Two, Boarded Sanctioned Ship in Pacific – VIDEO

The US armed forces announced that they had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, in which two people were killed and one survived, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.

President Donald Trump’s administration has in recent weeks been boasting about its successes in destroying vessels suspected of drug trafficking.

The armed forces said in a publication in X that the vessel was “involved in drug trafficking operations”.

“Intelligence has confirmed that the vessel has sailed on known drug smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and has been used for drug trafficking,” the post added.

Reuters notes that it cannot confirm this information through independent sources.

Ecuador’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Center is coordinating search and rescue operations for the survivor, the US Coast Guard said, adding that it is providing technical support.

US military personnel have boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon announced last night, as cited by the Associated Press and BTA.

The Pentagon’s social media post did not say whether the ship was connected to Venezuela, which is subject to US oil sanctions and relies on a fleet of false-flag tankers to export crude oil.

However, the Aquila II tanker was one of at least 16 ships that sailed off the Venezuelan coast last month after the US military captured then-President Nicolas Maduro, according to TankerTrackers.com.

Video footage and photos taken from a helicopter showed a US Navy destroyer squadron sailing alongside the tanker. The video does not make it clear to which agency the forces that detained the ship belong, AP notes.

The Aquila II was operating in violation of President Trump’s quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean Sea,” the Pentagon said. However, the statement did not specify whether the vessel would be seized, as has happened to at least seven other sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela.

According to information provided by the vessel last night, it was not loaded with crude oil.

“Aquila II” sails under the Panamanian flag and has been sanctioned by the United States in connection with the transport of illegal Russian oil, AP commented. The tanker belongs to a company with an address in Hong Kong and, according to ship-tracking sites, it sailed for most of last year with its radio transmitter switched off, a practice often used by smugglers to disguise their location.

After the US ousted Maduro in a surprise overnight operation on January 3, the Trump administration said it wanted to establish control over the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products. Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have made it clear that they view the seizure of the tankers as a way to generate cash as they try to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry and rebuild the country’s economy.

Trump is also trying to limit the flow of oil to Cuba, which is subject to severe U.S. economic sanctions and relies on oil supplies from allies such as Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.

Mexico has temporarily suspended oil supplies to Cuba due to the threat of US tariffs, but will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the island. This was announced by President Claudia Sheinbaum at a daily press conference, TASS reports.

”Oil supplies are currently suspended; we seek to avoid negative consequences for Mexico,” said the head of state. She recalled that Washington had issued a decree imposing tariffs on countries supplying fuel to the island. The president added that Mexico City is working diplomatically to find a way to support Havana without falling under US restrictions.

Scheinbaum also called on Washington to lift the restrictions.

“We make an international appeal to the United States that these sanctions are very unfair to the Cuban people,” the president emphasized.

”They don’t have fuel for hospitals or schools, so people are suffering.”

The president emphasized that Mexico will not give up its humanitarian support for Cuba. “We will help the people of Cuba, as we have always done at all times to help those in need,” Scheinbaum added.

The situation around Cuba

On January 29, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing Washington to impose tariffs on goods from countries supplying oil to Cuba. This document formally declared a state of emergency in the United States due to an alleged threat posed by Cuba. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Paria strongly condemned these measures, which threaten the island nation with a “total blockade of fuel supplies”, “violate all principles of international trade” and create “extreme conditions” for the Cuban people.

Washington said it was cooperating with the leadership in Havana on the situation around Cuba due to the US energy blockade and expressed the view that the countries were close to an agreement.