US slaps sanctions on Maduro relatives as Venezuela war fears build

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (AFP): The United States imposed sanctions Thursday against relatives of Venezulan leader Nicolas Maduro and six companies shipping the South American country's oil.

The move came as the White House said it will bring an oil tanker seized by American forces off the Venezuelan coast to a port in the United States, adding to growing fears of open conflict between the two countries.

President Donald Trump's administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela for months, with a major naval buildup in the region that has been accompanied by deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats, killing nearly 90 people.

In a dramatic raid this week that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was aimed at Maduro's "regime," Washington took control of the tanker, with US forces roping down from a helicopter onto the vessel.

Caracas condemned the raid as "an act of international piracy."

Russian leader Vladimir Putin expressed support on Thursday during a phone call with his ally Maduro, but with Moscow's forces tied down in a grinding war in Ukraine, its capacity to provide aid is limited.

The US Treasury announced sanctions against three nephews of Maduro's wife Cilia Flores, labeling two of them "narco-traffickers operating in Venezuela".

"Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Six companies shipping Venezuelan oil were also slapped with sanctions. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists that the seized tanker "will go to a US port and the United States does intend to seize the oil".

"We're not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black-market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world."

The tanker was expected to dock in Galveston, Texas, two unnamed US officials told NBC News, adding that the crew would be released upon arrival. Noem told a congressional hearing earlier on Thursday that the tanker operation was "pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs"-a reference to US allegations of narcotics smuggling by Maduro's government.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, feared for her life during her secret journey from Venezuela to Norway to receive the award, she said on Friday.

"There were moments when I felt that there was a real risk to my life, and it was also a very spiritual moment because, in the end, I simply felt that I was in God's hands and that whatever would be, would be," she told reporters in Oslo.

She declined to give details about how she managed to leave Venezuela, where she has lived in hiding since last year, to protect those involved-following dramatic accounts of her journey in US media.