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The US is receiving full cooperation from Venezuela’s regime and will control the country and its vast oil reserves for years, Donald Trump has claimed.
Caracas was giving Washington “everything that we feel is necessary” and the US would remain a political overlord there for an indefinite period, the US president said.
“We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,” Trump told the New York Times. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil.” Asked how long the White House would demand direct oversight of Venezuela, he said “only time will tell”. Asked if it would be longer than a year, he replied: “I would say much longer.”
His comments came after Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, defended plans to open up her country’s oil market to Washington.
Rodríguez said on Wednesday that the US attack to remove her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, had put a “stain” on the countries’ relations, but that it was “not unusual or irregular” to trade with the US, adding that Venezuela was “open to energy relations where all parties benefit”.
In his New York Times interview Trump made a similar claim, saying: “We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”
Trump did not answer questions about why he endorsed Rodríguez – a veteran member of a government he has accused of “narco-terrorism” – as Venezuela’s new leader instead of backing María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who led a successful election campaign in 2024 and won the Nobel peace prize.
He declined to say if he had spoken to Rodríguez but said his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, did so “all the time”. The president made no commitments about when Venezuela might hold elections.
US forces seized a pair of sanctions-hit tankers on Wednesday and the administration announced it would manage all sales of Venezuela’s future crude production and oversee the sale of the country’s petroleum worldwide.
“We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela,” said the US energy secretary, Chris Wright. “First this backed-up store of oil, and then indefinitely going forward we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela in the marketplace.”
In an interview on Fox News, the US vice-president, JD Vance, said Venezuela would be able to sell its oil only if it served the interests of Washington. “We control the energy resources, and we tell the regime, you’re allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America’s national interest, you’re not allowed to sell it if you can’t serve America’s national interest,” Vance said.
On Tuesday, Trump announced a deal to access to up to $3bn worth of Venezuelan crude, a sign Venezuelan government officials are responding to Trump’s demand they open up to US oil companies or risk more military intervention.
On top of the ongoing embargo on Venezuelan oil, the US energy department has said the “only oil transported in and out of Venezuela” will be through approved channels consistent with US law and national security interests.
That level of control over the world’s largest proven reserves of crude oil could give the Trump administration a broader hold on oil supplies globally in ways that could enable it to influence prices. Since the capture of Maduro, Trump has continued to pledge that the US will “run” the country, despite pushback from Rodríguez.
On Wednesday, Trump said Venezuela would only buy US-made products with the profits it makes from any deal with Washington to sell oil. “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,” the president said in a social media post.
Trump is scheduled to meet with the heads of major oil companies at the White House on Friday to discuss ways of raising Venezuela’s oil production. But according to reports, US oil companies are pushing for “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make large investments in Venezuela.
The Financial Times reported that oil executives are expected to press the president on providing strong legal and financial guarantees before they agree to commit capital to Venezuela. US officials had in recent weeks told US oil executives they would need to return to Venezuela quickly and invest significant capital in the country to revive the damaged oil industry, Reuters reported earlier this week.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
