US President Donald Trump has indicated that his administration will maintain control over Venezuela for a “long” period of time, likely longer than a year, until progress is made toward a democratic transition, noting that the interim authorities led by Delcy Rodríguez are providing “everything” that Washington “considers necessary.”
“Only time will tell. We’re going to use the oil and we’re going to take it. We’re lowering oil prices and we’re going to give money to Venezuela, which desperately needs it,” the US president said in an extensive interview with the American newspaper ‘The New York Times’ about the military intervention that removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power on January 3.
Regarding the next steps in the democratic transition in Venezuela and the timelines Washington is considering for elections in the country, Trump avoided setting a schedule, merely stating that it “will be much longer” than six months or a year.
The US president focused his remarks on the need to “rebuild” Venezuela in a way that is “very profitable” for Washington, after the White House made it a priority to control Venezuelan oil and ensure that these natural resources do not fall into the hands of China or Russia, close allies of Caracas until now.
Washington has confirmed its intention to take control of Venezuelan crude oil exports for an indefinite period as part of a plan to rebuild the country’s economy. In this context, Trump mentioned a plan to acquire “between 30 and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil,” amidst his initiative to shift alliances in the global energy sector.
In any case, Trump himself acknowledges in the interview that rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry “will take time,” since the United States will have to invest in spare parts, equipment, and services to achieve its goal of stabilizing and boosting Venezuela’s crude oil production. In this regard, he noted that the interim authorities, led by Delcy Rodríguez, until now Maduro’s number two and a key figure in Chavismo, are proving instrumental in this effort. “They are giving us everything we consider necessary,” he said, pointing to the good cooperation with the new leaders in Caracas after Maduro’s fall.
MARÍA CORINA MACHADO AND EDMUNDO GONZÁLEZ
Regarding the role that opposition figures María Corina Machado, the recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Edmundo González, the presidential candidate in the last elections, will play, the US leader did not elaborate on his decision to keep a key figure of Chavismo as interim head and to sideline, for the moment, leaders of the democratic opposition.
Trump did, however, assure that his administration maintains “constant” contact with Machado and that it is Secretary of State Marco Rubio who maintains a direct line of communication with the Venezuelan opposition leader, who remains outside the country after traveling to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
He also did not comment on what role González might play in the future of Venezuela. The former consensus opposition candidate against Maduro in the July 2024 elections is in Spain, where he has defended his claim to the presidency, after the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro’s victory without publishing the election results.
