Caracas has called the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast "act of international piracy, arguing the move was part of a long-running strategy to take control of its natural resources.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces and energetically repudiates what constitutes a brazen theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the president of the United States, who confessed to the assault of an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea," the government said in a statement in Spanish.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday described the tanker, which appeared to have been bound for Cuba, as the "largest ever" seized by the U.S., in a further escalation in the White House's campaign against President Nicolás Maduro's regime.

This is a breaking news story. Upda

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