The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Tuesday that the interim authorities of Venezuela - following the capture of the dictator Nicolás Maduro - agreed to sell between 30 and 50 million barrels of high-quality oil to the U.S. market.
On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated that this crude oil will be sold "at its market price" and that the revenues generated would be controlled by him as president, with the aim of “ensuring that they are used for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States”. However, he did not explain how he would directly control those funds or under what legal mechanism he would do so.
According to the post, Energy Secretary Chris Wright was instructed to immediately implement the plan, coordinating the transportation of crude oil on storage vessels to U.S. ports.
Although Trump made it clear that the oil would come from the Venezuelan "interim authorities," it has not yet been specified whether these barrels correspond to existing reserves on land or on vessels that remain in Venezuelan waters following the recent sanctions and blockades imposed by the U.S. administration.
The statement comes amidst a highly tense context between Washington and Caracas, which includes measures such as the total blockade of sanctioned tankers to and from Venezuela announced by the Trump administration last December, as well as the pressure policy aimed at economically weakening the former Maduro regime.
On its part, sectors of the interim Venezuelan regime have maintained a defiant tone against the United States, with statements that "there is no foreign agent governing Venezuela," referring to accusations of political or economic control by Washington.
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