Cuba’s top diplomat on Wednesday called the U.S. Coast Guard’s recent seizure of an oil tanker an “aggressive escalation” amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuela.

“We condemn the vile act of piracy and the seizure by that country’s military forces of a vessel carrying Venezuelan oil, which contravenes the rules of free trade and freedom of navigation, in open violation of International Law,” Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla posted on the social platform X.

In a subsequent post on X, Parrilla shared a statement from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, which branded the seizing of the tanker an “act of piracy.”

The Coast Guard led an operation on Wednesday to board and seize the vessel. Coast Guard members hopped on a helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford — the Pentagon’s largest aircraft carrier, which stationed in the Caribbean earlier this year — and boarded the tanker.

Attorney General Pam Bondi a posted video of the seizure and said the tanker was used to “transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”

After President Trump announced the seizure, he did not elaborate on why other than to say the tanker “was seized for a very good reason.” The president suggested that the oil aboard the tanker now belongs to the U.S.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s government also alleged the Coast Guard engaged in an act of piracy and accused Trump of orchestrating a “deliberate plan to plunder our energy resources,” according to a translated statement.

“In these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights,” the statement continued. “It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”

The seizure of the tanker is one of the latest developments amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. The U.S. has carried out a series of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. The attacks have stirred controversy involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reported orders over the initial strikes on Sept. 2.

The U.S. has also amassed a large military presence in Latin American waters. Trump has said the military will carry out action on Venezuelan soil “very soon.”

Democratic lawmakers slammed the latest moves, with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Tuesday condemning the president for “sleepwalking us into a war.”