US President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50-million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under a US blockade in a further sign Washington is coordinating with the Venezuelan government since capturing President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro is in a New York jail awaiting drug charges after the Saturday morning raid the US estimated killed about 75 people, according to a Washington Post report citing officials familiar with the matter. The US has yet to report the death toll from an operation that reasserted US willingness to intervene in Latin America with perhaps its most dramatic military operation since the 1989 invasion of Panama that seized Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.
Caracas has not given a number for those killed, but the army posted a list of 23 names of its dead. Venezuelan officials have said a large part of Maduro’s security contingent was killed “in cold blood”, and Cuba has said 32 members of its military and intelligence services in Venezuela were killed. Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Tuesday declared a week of mourning for members of the military killed in the raid.
The operation brought condemnation from Russia, China and Venezuela’s leftist allies, while allies of the US have urged adherence to international law. Maduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges. He said he was a “decent man” and president of Venezuela while standing in a Manhattan court shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb.
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While Venezuela’s political future remains uncertain amid US claims it will run the South American country, Trump appears to be working with Rodriguez and other senior officials from Maduro’s government, disappointing the opposition that had hoped to play a larger role. “This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as president of the US, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the US,” Trump said. Based on recent prices for Venezuelan oil, the deal could be worth up to $1.9bn (R31bn).
US officials have yet to outline a legal framework for seizing Venezuelan oil, though the US has accused Venezuelan tankers of breaking US sanctions to ship Iranian and Venezuelan oil. Trump has also suggested the US would help rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure to benefit oil majors such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, which were affected by a Venezuelan oil nationalisation by former president Hugo Chavez, and Chevron Corp, which has continued to operate there.
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