President Donald Trump's administration will seek to influence Caracas' policy decisions rather than take over the administration of Venezuela, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Sunday, walking back Trump's assertion a day earlier that the US would "run" Venezuela.
Trump meant to say the US would run Venezuela's policy, Rubio said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press television show. "We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because, not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest." The US will maintain its "oil blockade" against Venezuela to maintain leverage, Rubio said.
Trump on Saturday said the US would temporarily "run" the Venezuelan government and seek to overhaul its oil sector, hours after he ordered a large-scale military assault that resulted in the capture of Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro. Trump made the claim in a press conference to explain his decision to send in US special forces to arrest Maduro, who has been transported to a US detention facility in Brooklyn, New York.
Events on the ground do not corroborate Trump's claim that the US has asserted control over Venezuela's government. Venezuela's Supreme Court confirmed vice president and energy minister Delcy Rodriguez as the country's interim president on Saturday. Rodriguez in a televised interview called for Maduro's release.
Interior minister Diosdado Cabello — who holds considerable control over the military — said in a video online that he does not recognize Rodriguez as the interim president. Internal divisions between Maduro's administration officials could increase the chances of violence and destabilization.
The national assembly is set to convene on Monday. Lawmakers aligned with Maduro have accused a faction of supporters of his predecessor and mentor, the late former president Hugo Chavez, of handing Maduro over to the US military, according to a document seen by Argus. Doing so could amount to treason under Venezuelan law.
Trump on Saturday said Rodriguez and Rubio had a telephone conversation, during which the acting Venezuelan leader agreed to cooperate with US demands.
Rubio, like Trump, confirmed that the US prefers to deal with the existing government of Venezuela — which it decried as an illegitimate "narco-regime" — rather than the Venezuelan opposition and its nominal leaders, whom the US acknowledged as the winners of the 2024 presidential election.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is "fantastic" but the bulk of her movement "is no longer present inside of Venezuela", Rubio said. "We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away."
Rubio also appeared to be walking back Trump's claim of taking over the Venezuelan oil industry.
"We don't need Venezuela's oil," Rubio said. "We have plenty of oil in the United States."
But the US will not allow "the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States," he said.
Venezuela has been sending crude to China under a large oil-for-loans program, as well as selling crude to independent refineries.
Trump on Saturday reiterated his complaints that Venezuela's government under Chavez nationalized the assets of US oil companies, which he said was one of the "largest thefts of property" in US history. Trump claimed that future oil revenue in Venezuela would defray the costs of temporarily administering the government.
Chevron operates in Venezuela with state-owned PdV under a waiver from US sanctions and imported about 120,000 b/d of crude from Venezuela to the US in December, based on data from Kpler ship tracking.
Chevron said it "remains focused on the safety and well-being of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations".
ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which lost assets in Venezuela in 2007, have won awards in international tribunals and US courts for the expropriation of their assets in Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips holds the largest claim for expropriated assets, at $12bn. That claim is about to be mostly satisfied as a US court has ordered the auction of PdV-owned US refining company Citgo.
A federal judge overseeing the auction to buy Citgo in November affirmed the winning $5.9bn bid from Amber Energy, an affiliate of New York hedge fund Elliott Investment Management.
