The U.S. War Department announced on Monday that it intercepted a tanker in the Indian Ocean that, according to Washington, was violating limits imposed by President Donald Trump on crude oil transfers in the Caribbean affecting Venezuela and Cuba. According to a post on X, the U.S. Armed Forces conducted 'an inspection, a maritime interdiction, and the boarding of the Aquila II without incident in the area of responsibility of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom)'. The War Department explains in the message that 'the Aquila II was operating in defiance of the quarantine imposed by President Trump on sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean'. The War Department tracked and pursued this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. 'No other nation on the planet has the ability to impose its will in any domain. By land, sea, or air, our Armed Forces will find them and bring them to justice.' 'They will run out of fuel long before they can escape from us,' the communiqué adds. Since December 2025, the United States has imposed a maritime 'quarantine' on sanctioned tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, as part of the so-called Operation Southern Thrust, in which at least seven vessels have already been boarded or seized. Trump himself, in turn, signed an executive order to punish with tariffs countries that send crude oil to Cuba, a pressure mechanism that is strangling the island. The stated objective is to prevent Venezuelan oil from being sold outside channels authorized by Washington and to cut off income to networks considered allied with Russia, Iran, or Cuba itself. 'When the War Department says quarantine, we mean it'.
