The US foils Colombian plan to break Cuba’s tight embargo and intercepts oil vessel headed to island
Colombian President Gustavo Petro acknowledged on Sunday that an oil tanker intercepted by the United States in the Caribbean was loaded with oil in his country, but denied any wrongdoing as Washington blocked oil supplies from Cuba.
The Liberian-flagged Ocean Mariner is accused of trying to circumvent the US blockade of Cuba in late January and deliver Colombian oil to the island.
Petro acknowledged that the ship had left his country with a cargo of oil on board, but stressed that there was nothing illegal.
“There are no Colombian irregularities, neither publicly nor privately,” the Colombian president wrote on X.
He explained that a private company carried the cargo on board and that its declared destination was the Dominican Republic.
Petro cited a story from the Colombian El Tiempo newspaper that the tanker had been inspected as required by customs before it left, and that the contract was worth $6.9 million.
In an earlier post, Petro asserted that there is no irregularity in the free transportation of oil in the Caribbean and called on the United States to change its policy toward Cuba.
The communist island is suffering from severe fuel shortages and has been exacerbated by the interruption of supplies from Venezuela following the arrest of Nicolás Maduro in early January during a US military operation in Caracas.
According to the New York Times investigation, based on maritime tracking data, showed that the Ocean Mariner had announced its intention to sail to the Dominican Republic from Colombia.
However, the ship veered twice and attempted to head for Cuba, before being intercepted by the US Coast Guard, according to the same source.
Earlier in January, Ocean Mariner was able to deliver an oil shipment to Cuba from Mexico.
