Petroleum and natural gas are nationalized in Venezuela
President Donald Trump again said Sunday night that the United States is “in charge” of Venezuela, even as senior officials tried to soften that message and frame Washington’s role as pressure, not direct rule.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump refused to clarify who governs Venezuela after US forces seized longtime leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday during a military operation. “It means we’re in charge,” he said, without offering details.
He further added that the US needs total access, especially to Venezuela’s oil, to help rebuild the country.
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a different tone. He said the US would not run Venezuela but would use leverage, including a military-backed “quarantine” on oil exports, to force cooperation from the new leadership in Caracas.
US naval forces will continue blocking sanctioned oil tankers, preventing them from leaving or entering Venezuela, until Venezuela opens its state-run oil industry to foreign investment, likely favoring American companies.
Currently, at least 50 such vessels are under this blockade, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The initiative is expected to crumble the Venezuelan economy, but would not affect the overall global oil market.
Trump wants American oil companies to enter the country and invest billions of dollars to rebuild its oil industry to make “money for the country.”
Petroleum and natural gas are nationalized in Venezuela, a move that occurred 50 years ago. That was also when ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil left the country and, in turn, sued the government for billions of dollars over the move. The two companies have managed to get just a fraction of the amount.
Critics warn the approach risks destabilizing the region and reviving accusations of US imperialism in Latin America.