The United States ‍has seized another Venezuela-linked tanker, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday (January 15, 2026), ahead ​of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump ‌and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

The seizure ​marks the sixth vessel targeted in recent weeks that was either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the seizure took place in the Caribbean.

The U.S. military’s Southern Command confirmed the pre-dawn operation, saying U.S. forces ​apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica “without incident”. It said the Veronica ⁠was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated ​properly and lawfully,” Southern ⁠Command said in a statement.

The seizures began as part of Trump’s campaign to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power, which culminated in U.S. forces swooping into the ‌country to “capture” him and his wife on January ‌3, 2026.

Since then, Mr. Trump has said the United States plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely ‍as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry.

The vessels intercepted so far have been either under U.S. sanctions or ‍part of a “shadow fleet” of unregulated ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers – Iran, Russia or Venezuela.

Last week, the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic. The move was condemned by Moscow.

The latest seizure came ahead ⁠of Thursday’s (January 15, 2026) meeting between Mr. Trump and Ms. Machado, in their first face-to-face meeting since the U.S. ousted her ​long-time foe, Mr. Maduro.

Mr. Trump has previously called her a “freedom fighter” ⁠but dismissed the idea of installing her to lead Venezuela after ousting Mr. Maduro, saying she did not have enough domestic support.

A classified CIA assessment presented to Mr. Trump concluded that Mr. Maduro loyalists, including Ms. Rodriguez, were best ⁠positioned to maintain stability.

Pope Leo met Venezuelan ​opposition leader and Nobel peace prize ‌winner Maria Corina Machado ​on Monday (January 12, 2026), the Vatican said, but did not provide any further details.

The meeting, listed among the Pope’s appointments for Monday in a daily Vatican statement, ​had not been included in ⁠an earlier advisory to the press about Pope Leo’s planned schedule for the day.

Leo, the ​first U.S. ⁠Pope, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after the capture by U.S. ‌forces of Venezuelan President Nicolas ‌Maduro on the orders of President Donald Trump.

In a major ‍foreign policy speech on Friday, the Pope decried the use of ‍military force as a means of achieving diplomatic goals and called for human rights to be protected in Venezuela.

Ms. Machado, a former National Assembly member, was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election ⁠by authorities aligned with Mr. Maduro.

She backed a stand-in candidate ​who was widely considered to have ⁠won the vote, although Mr. Maduro claimed victory. Ballot audits by independent observers showed irregularities in the official results.

U.S. President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday (January 11, 2026) to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would now stop.

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump said on his Truth Social channel. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

His remarks come a week after U.S. forces seized Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.

Earlier on Sunday (January 11) Mr. Trump reposted a message suggesting that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio could become the President of now communist-ruled Cuba.

Mr. Trump shared that post with the comment: “Sounds good to me!”

In his own post soon afterwards, Mr. Trump said that “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week’s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.”

Under a U.S. trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez.

​Gold prices fell on Wednesday (January 7, 2026) as a stronger dollar ‌and investors reassessing the recent developments in the ​U.S. Venezuela situation weighed on the metal.

Spot gold dropped 0.8% to $4,461.51 per ounce, as of 1001 GMT, after briefly touching a more than one-week high earlier in the session. Bullion had hit a record high of $4,549.71 on December 26, 2025.

U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down0.5% at $4,471.30.

Also Read | Gold, silver prices may cool off 

“It’s been quite ​a frenetic and volatile start to kick off the ⁠New Year so some profit-taking and reassessment of the Venezuelan situation especially seems in order,” said Jamie Dutta, chief market analyst at Nemo.money. In a sign ​that Washington is coordinating ⁠with the Venezuelan Government since capturing President Nicolas Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (January 6) unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan ‌oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under U.S. blockade.

Further ‌pressuring gold, the U.S. dollar hovered near a more than two-week high, making greenback-priced metals more expensive ‍for other currency holders. Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said on Tuesday (January 6) that aggressive U.S. interest rate cuts are needed this ‍year to keep the economy moving forward, while Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said further interest rate changes will need to be “finely tuned” to incoming data.

Markets are pricing in two rate cuts this year, as investors watch out for ADP employment data due later in the day, and U.S. non-farm payroll data on Friday (January 9) for further clues on monetary policy.

Non-yielding assets ⁠such as gold tend to perform well in low-interest-rate environments and during periods of geopolitical or economic ​uncertainty.

Among other precious metals, spot silver lost 2.3% to $79.40 per ⁠ounce, down from an all-time high of $83.62 hit on
Dec.ember 29.

Spot platinum dropped 6% to $2,297.56 per ounce, receding from a record high of $2,478.50 touched last Monday (January 5). It
gained more than 3% earlier in the session. Palladium traded 4.5% ⁠lower at $1,740.12 per ounce.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday (January 7, 2026) that Washington will control sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely”, a day after President Donald Trump announced Venezuela’s interim leaders had agreed to U.S.-managed marketing of 30-50 million barrels of crude.

​Dangerous paradigm: On Trump, Venezuela and unhinged depredation

“We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed up stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” Mr. Wright said at a Goldman Sachs energy event in Miami.

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