Category News

The United States says it will control sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” and decide how the proceeds of those sales are used, as President Donald Trump’s administration consolidates control over the South American country after abducting its president.

The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday that it had “begun marketing” Venezuelan oil on global markets and all proceeds from the sales “will first settle in US-controlled accounts at globally recognized banks”.

“These funds will be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the US government,” it said.

“These oil sales begin immediately with the anticipated sale of approximately 30-50 million barrels. They will continue indefinitely.”

In the hours afterwards, Trump himself weighed in on how the proceeds might be spent, suggesting that Venezuela had agreed to use its funds to buy products from the US.

“I have just been informed that Venezuela is going to be purchasing ONLY American Made Products, with the money they receive from our new Oil Deal,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social.

“These purchases will include, among other things, American Agricultural Products, and American Made Medicines, Medical Devices, and Equipment to improve Venezuela’s Electric Grid and Energy Facilities.”

The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday in what legal experts say was a clear violation of international law.

The US has said it plans to “run” the country and take control of its vast oil reserves, with Trump saying on social media on Tuesday that Caracas would hand between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil over to Washington.

The US actions against Venezuela come amid a months-long pressure campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro, who has been charged in New York with drug trafficking offences that he denies.

That has included a partial US naval blockade against Venezuela and the seizure of several vessels that the Trump administration says were transporting oil to and from the country in violation of US sanctions.

Earlier on Wednesday, US special forces seized two Venezuela-linked vessels – including a Russian-flagged ship in the North Atlantic – for allegedly breaching those sanctions.

The seizures came as senior US officials briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the Trump administration’s plans in Venezuela.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said most Republicans have backed Trump’s actions while Democrats have raised a slew of questions.

That includes “how long this operation in Venezuela will continue, what it will cost, [whether] any American servicemen actually be deployed on the ground in Venezuela, and what is the Venezuelan reaction,” Fisher explained.

“The Trump administration [is] hoping to get everyone on side before the end of the day,” he added.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on social media that Wednesday’s briefing was “worse” than imagined.

“Oil company executives seem to know more about Trump’s secret plan to ‘run’ Venezuela than the American people. We need public Senate hearings NOW,” she said.

Three-phased plan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that the Trump administration is pursuing a three-phased plan that begins with the sales of Venezuelan oil.

“That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it’s dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime,” Rubio said.

The second phase would see US and other companies gain access to the Venezuelan market, and “begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally … so that opposition forces can be amnestied and released from prisons or brought back to the country”.

“And then the third phase, of course, would be one of transition,” Rubio added.

Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and energy at Eurasia Group, said the US announcement about controlling Venezuelan oil sales hints at “a return to the concessionary system” in place before the 1970s.

Brew explained in a social media post that, under that system, “producer states own the oil but it is Western firms that manage production and marketing, ultimately retain the bulk of the profits”.

A group of United Nations experts also warned that recent statements from Trump and other administration officials about plans to “run” Venezuela and exploit its oil reserves would violate international law.

Specifically, the experts said the US position contravenes “the right of peoples to self-determination and their associated sovereignty over natural resources, cornerstones of international human rights law”.

“Venezuela’s vast natural resources, including the largest proven oil reserves in the world, must not be cynically exploited through thinly veiled pretexts to legitimise military aggression, foreign occupation, or regime-change strategies,” they said.

Political situation unstable

Renata Segura, the Latin America and Caribbean programme director at the International Crisis Group, noted Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the US saying it plans to control sales of the country’s oil.

“And so we have to assume that either [the Venezuelan authorities] have accepted these terms, or that they’re just going to be forced to accept them,” Segura told Al Jazeera.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as president earlier this week following Maduro’s abduction, stressing on Tuesday that “there is no foreign agent governing Venezuela” despite US claims to “run” the country.

Segura explained, “There’s a lot of debate within the [Venezuelan] regime itself about how to move forward” amid the US pronouncements, stressing the political situation remains far from stable.

“It’s very important what the army might do,” she said.

The UK and France pledged boots on the ground once a peace deal is reached.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump  has reaffirmed that it plans to dictate terms to the interim government of Venezuela, following the abduction of leader Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

On Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the US attack on Venezuela for the first time in a news briefing, and she faced a volley of questions about the extent of Trump’s role in the South American country’s governance.

“We’re continuing to be in close coordination with the interim authorities,” Leavitt responded. “Their decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America.”

Vice President JD Vance also weighed in during an appearance on Fox News, saying that the US would apply economic pressure to ensure compliance with Trump’s priorities.

“People always ask: How do you control Venezuela? And we’re actually seeing it play out in real time,” Vance said.

“The way that we control Venezuela is we control the purse strings, we control the energy resources, and we tell the regime, ‘You’re allowed to sell the oil, so long as you serve America’s interest.’”

But the question of who is in charge in Venezuela remains a volatile one.

Before dawn on Saturday, the Trump administration launched a military offensive in Venezuela to capture and remove President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, describing the couple’s abduction as a law enforcement operation.

Maduro and Flores have since been transported to New York City, where they face charges that they oversaw the shipment of “tons of cocaine into the United States”.

In the hours immediately after the attack, it was unclear whether the Trump administration would seek to expel the remnants of the Maduro government.

Trump delivered a news conference from his residence in Palm Beach, Florida, claiming that the country was under US control.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country.”

Rodriguez maintains ‘no foreign agent’ in charge

Since then, however, the Trump administration has signalled it would prioritise stability in Venezuela over quickly installing new leadership. It has declined to set a timeline for new elections.

“ It’s too premature and too early to dictate a timetable for elections in Venezuela right now,” Leavitt said on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president, was officially sworn in as Venezuela’s interim leader, and the Trump administration has indicated it would work with her as it pursues the extraction and sale of Venezuelan oil.

Still, Rodriguez’s government and the Trump administration have described their relationship in starkly different terms.

According to the Trump White House, Rodriguez is answerable to US demands. “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic magazine on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Leavitt echoed that position, saying that the US would wield influence over Venezuela’s decisions.

“We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now,” she said.

Already, in a Tuesday night post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Venezuela would be surrendering 30 to 50 million barrels of oil, so that the US could sell it on the international market.

“That money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States,” Trump wrote.

The Rodriguez government, meanwhile, has repeatedly denied that the US is puppeteering its decisions.

Though Rodriguez has, at times, struck a conciliatory posture towards the Trump administration, she has rejected the idea that foreign powers are leading the country.

“We are here governing together with the people,” Rodriguez said in remarks broadcast on state television.

“The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no one else. There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”

A continuation of Maduro-era policies?

Like Maduro before her, Rodriguez is part of a political movement founded by the late socialist President Hugo Chavez, known as “chavismo”.

As a “chavista”, Rodriguez has spoken out against US imperialism in Latin America, and she denounced the recent abduction of Maduro — Chavez’s handpicked successor — and his wife as an unwarranted “kidnapping” and a “brutal attack”.

Chavez is also seen as a key figure in the nationalisation of Venezuelan oil, expanding state control over the country’s rich petroleum reserves during his time as president.

Trump and his officials have called such efforts, including the 2007 expropriation of foreign oil assets, as an act of theft against the US.

Still, the Trump administration has described Rodriguez’s government as cooperative so far.

It remains to be seen whether behind-the-scenes demands — including reports that Trump has asked Rodriguez to sever ties with key allies, including Russia, China, Cuba and Iran — will lead to public discord.

“The president has made it very clear that this is a country within the Western Hemisphere, close by the United States, that is no longer going to be sending illegal drugs to the United States of America,” Leavitt said.

“The president is fully deploying his ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy agenda.”

Meanwhile, the Rodriguez government has continued Maduro’s campaign of stifling internal dissent, according to human rights monitors.

As part of an emergency declaration, the interim president authorised Venezuelan law enforcement to detain those who supported Maduro’s abduction.

The nonprofit Foro Penal has reported that, on January 5, in the wake of the US attacks, Venezuelan authorities arrested 14 journalists, all of whom were eventually released. One was deported.

Another human rights group, Caleidoscopio Humano, has announced that two elderly men from the state of Merida were also arrested for celebrating Maduro’s capture by firing guns into the air.

The international community has long denounced the human rights abuses in Venezuela. But the US has also faced broad criticism for its attack to remove Maduro, which has been denounced as a violation of sovereignty.

On Wednesday, a group of United Nations experts warned that Trump’s actions constitute an “international crime of aggression”.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman who federal officials alleged “weaponised” ⁠her vehicle during a large-scale ⁠immigration operation in Minneapolis. City officials disputed that account, responding with an expletive.