Jan. 8 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has said that Venezuela is going to use funds from a new oil deal with the United States to buy “ONLY American Made Products” amid uncertainty over the oil agreement and his administration’s plan for the South American country.
“These purchases will include, among other things, American Agricultural products and American Made Medicines, Medical Devices and Equipment to improve Venezuela’s Electric Grid and Energy Facilities,” Trump said in a statement published Wednesday to his Truth Social media platform.
“In other words, Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States of American as their principal partner — A wise choice, and a very good thing for the people of Venezuela, and the United States.”
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, which have been the focus of the Trump administration since Saturday when the United States seized the country’s former authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife in a military operation that killed dozens in Caracas. Maduro is indicted in the United States on narcoterrorism and other drug-related charges.
As the United States increased military pressure on Venezuela ahead of the covert efforts to abduct Maduro, and enforced a naval blockade that effectively halted its ability to export oil, Trump repeatedly criticized Caracas over its handling of the petroleum sector. He accused Venezuela of having “stolen” oil and oil assets from U.S. companies, seemingly referencing the country’s decades-old nationalization of its oil industry.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that Venezuela will be turning over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States that it will then sell at market price. He said the proceeds from the sales will be controlled by him for the benefit of the United States and Venezuela.
However, no deal actually seems to be in place — at least not yet.
Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., better known in English as PDVSA, confirmed in a statement distributed by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons on Wednesday that it is “in negotiations with the United States for the sale of crude oil volumes, within the framework of the commercial relations that exist between the two countries.”
PDVSA also attempted to project an image that the deal was ordinary, saying it included arrangements “similar to those currently in place with international companies” and was “based on a strictly commercial transaction, with criteria of legality, transparency and benefit for both parties.”
There has yet to be confirmation from Venezuela that it will use proceeds from selling oil to the United States to only buy U.S. goods.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday following a briefing of their plans for Venezuela for U.S. senators that the Trump administraiton was about to “execute” an oil deal, and that the deal is integral to the first phase of a three-phase plan to return Venezuela to the Venezuelan people.
The first phase is to stabilize the country with the use of proceeds from oil sales, he said.
“We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We’re going to sell it in the marketplace at market rakes, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption not the regime,” he said.
“So, we have a lot of leverage to move on the stabilization front.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at a Goldman Sachs energy conference in Miami, Fla., reiterated that the Venezuelan oil “flow” to U.S. refineries and around the world with those sales to be done by the U.S. government and deposited in banks the Trump administration controls.
“Then from there, those funds will blow back into Venezuela to benefit the Venezuelan people,” he said. “But we need to have that leverage an that control of those oils sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela.”
The plan, he said, is to make Venezuela “a wealthy, prosperous, peaceful energy powerhouse.”
Democrats, however, left the briefing on the situation by Rubio accusing the Trump administration of abducting Maduro to secure Venezuela’s oil and positions the United States to make the same mistakes it made in the Middle East over the past two decades.
“It’s insane,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a recorded statement.
“They are essentially asking you, the American public, to use your taxpayer dollars to run the country over Venezuela.”
He described the plan as the United States micromanaging Venezuela with U.S. taxpayer footing the bill. The saying the multibillion-effort to run the country, he continued, will also see the Trump administration spending just as much time running Venezuela as it spend running the United States.
“There’s huge problems here at home,” he said. “and now the United States government is going to be spending most of its time, on many days, running the country of Venezuela.”
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