US President Donald Trump claimed late Tuesday that Venezuela’s interim leadership will turn over to the United States as many as 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to be sold at market price, part of a broader administration effort to seize the South American nation’s natural resources.
Trump, who authorized the US bombing of Venezuela and abduction of its president this past weekend, said he would control the proceeds of the sale – which could amount to $3 billion.
“Just straight-up piracy and extortion from the US president,” journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote in response.
Consistent with his administration’s conduct since the weekend attack that killed at least 75 people in Venezuela, Trump provided few details on how his scheme would work or how it would comply with domestic and international law, both of which the president has repeatedly disregarded and treated with contempt.
It’s also not clear that Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president and an ally of Nicolás Maduro, has agreed to Trump’s plan, which he announced on social media as his administration worked to entice US oil giants to take part in its effort to exploit the South American nation’s vast reserves.
Ahead of the US attack on Venezuela, the Trump administration imposed a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers approaching or leaving Venezuela, pushing the country closer to economic collapse. The New York Times noted Tuesday that Trump’s decision to “begin targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan crude to Asian markets had paralyzed the state oil company’s exports.”
“To keep the wells pumping, the state oil company, known as PDVSA, had been redirecting crude oil into storage tanks and turning tankers idling in ports into floating storage facilities,” the Times reported. During Trump’s first White House term, he banned US companies from working with PDVSA.
Trump wrote in his social media post Tuesday that the tens of millions of barrels of oil “will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately,” Trump wrote.
The Trump administration is also pushing Venezuela’s interim leadership to meet a series of US demands before it can pump more oil, ABC News reported late Tuesday. Trump has threatened to launch another attack on Venezuela, and target more of its politicians, if the country’s leadership doesn’t follow his administration’s orders.
According to ABC, the Trump administration has instructed Venezuela to “kick out China, Russia, Iran and Cuba and sever economic ties.”
“Second, Venezuela must agree to partner exclusively with the US on oil production and favor America when selling heavy crude oil,” ABC added, citing unnamed sources. “According to one person, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a private briefing on Monday that he believes the US can force Venezuela’s hand because its existing oil tankers are full. Rubio also told lawmakers that the US estimates that Caracas has only a couple of weeks before it will become financially insolvent without the sale of its oil reserves.”
This article, originally published by Common Dreams, is republished under a Creative Commons license.
The 0ld, octogenarian will not last mucch longer . Many, many signs,& indicators of decline…physical and mental
USA is at the end of all jokes now, and for a long time to come.
“Democracy” is CORPORATE FASCISM.
If ADHD and Psychosis were a country it would be USA and Israel.
This one man show, the coked up clown living for the tweets and headlines, should get a Nobel Prize for number of Executive Orders issued. That should quench his narcissism for at least the next 5minutes
The old empire making its final blows as it sees the new empire rising. Economy choking did not work crumbling even on partners of China such as Russia and Iran, so now they are making a physical blow. I do wonder though how they justify this to the progressive west cattle population? If Russia is ‘bad’ for attacking Ukraine, US, on the other hand, had invaded and liberated the country from its president and its resources, ‘installed Democracy’, etc. – do people really buy this?
There are some voices in the West who understand what is going on, independents, some authors on this site. But the majority of the West’s population horde have fallen for the “left vs right” trick promoted by Zionists. These people also bought into “exceptionalism” therefore, “it is right when WE do it, just not when THEY do it”. “Our crimes are better than THEIR crimes”. Etc
Mental and moral retardation in other words. “Progressives” and “MAGAtards” are two sides of the same dumpster. Real MAGA people would be outraged. Real MAGA people would promote Republic over empire. Fake MAGA people would promote empire over Republic.
Deep State Donnie is a means to an end for billionaire donors. He got Epsteined good by Mossad.