The White House would be demanding, first of all, that Caracas “expel” China, Russia, Iran and Cuba and “cut” economic ties with those countries.
MIAMI, United States. – The Administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, transferred the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodrigueza list of conditions so that the country can increase extraction and return to marketing its oil, including ending its ties with Cuba, China, Russia and Iran and accepting an “exclusive” oil partnership with Washington, according to an ABC News report based on three people familiar with the plan.
According to ABC News, the White House demands, first, that Caracas “expel” China, Russia, Iran and Cuba and “cut” economic ties with those countries. Secondly, the strategy proposes that Venezuela associate only with the United States in the production of crude oil and that it favors the United States market in the sale of heavy oil.
In the same report, ABC News indicated that the Secretary of State, the Cuban-American Marco Rubio, told legislators in a private briefing last Monday that Washington believes it can pressure Caracas because its tankers are already full and that, according to United States estimates, Venezuela would have “a couple of weeks” before falling into financial insolvency if it fails to sell its reserves.
Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, confirmed to ABC News that the Trump Administration’s plan is based on control of Venezuelan oil. “The Government does intend to control the oil, take charge of the ships, the tankers, and none of them are going to go to Havana,” Wicker declared in that interview. Elsewhere in the conversation, he added: “This is not a boots on the ground issue (…). That is simply not part of the plan.”
ABC News also cited a senior administration official as saying that the president “talks about exerting maximum leverage” on the actors who remain in power in Venezuela to cooperate with the United States by, among other things, stopping irregular migration and the flow of drugs, in addition to “revitalizing the oil infrastructure.” The State Department, the report added, did not “immediately” respond to a request for comment.
Trump himself ordered last month a “total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.” Asked the next day about the scope of that measure, Trump responded: “It’s just a blockade. I’m not going to let anyone pass who shouldn’t pass.”
In parallel, Reuters reported this Tuesday that Washington and Caracas had reached an agreement to export up to $2 billion in Venezuelan crude oil to the United States, with a volume that Trump placed between 30 and 50 million barrels, in a mechanism under which the money would remain under the control of the American president.
