Politics
Venezuela’s interim govt says it remains united behind Maduro after his US capture
- Rubio says “premature” to talk of new polls for Venezuela.
- Streets quiet amid anxiety over next developments.
- Vice president takes over country as interim leader.
A top Venezuelan official declared on Sunday that the country’s government would stay unified behind President Nicolas Maduro, whose capture by the US has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.
Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges, after US President Donald Trump ordered his removal and said the US would take control of Venezuela. But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro’s government, who have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, were still in charge.
“Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio shared by the ruling PSUV socialist party on Sunday as he urged calm.
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed on Saturday stunned Venezuelans. The action is Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s top court, though she has said Maduro remains president.
Because of her connections with the private sector and her deep knowledge of oil, the country’s top source of revenue, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle, but she has publicly contradicted Trump on his claims she is willing to work with the US.
The Venezuelan government has said for months that Trump’s pressure campaign is an effort to take possession of the country’s vast natural resources, especially its oil, and officials have made much of Trump’s Saturday comments on the subject, when he said major US oil companies would move in.
“We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil,” added Cabello, who has close ties to the military.
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is asking some of its joint ventures to cut back crude output by shutting down oilfields or groups of wells amid an export paralysis, three sources close to the decision told Reuters.
Oil exports from the OPEC country remain at a standstill since the US last month announced a blockade on sanctioned tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters and the seizure of two oil cargoes.
Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s biggest exoduses.
‘US ready to work with new authorities’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration will work with the existing Venezuelan leadership.
His comments indicated that Washington is not seeking complete regime change and sought to clarify Trump’s earlier statement that the US will “run” the Latin American country of about 30 million people.
Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the US was fighting drug traffickers, “not a war against Venezuela.”
Despite the success of the initial US operation, questions mounted over Trump’s strategy.
The US president on Saturday indicated deep, long-lasting US involvement centred on securing access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
“We’re going to run the country” until a transition can be made, he said, also insisting that military “boots on the ground” remained a possibility.
Rubio did multiple television interviews Sunday morning to make clear that Washington is not looking for upheaval.
He said Washington is ready to work with Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro’s cabinet — as long as they adhere to US demands.
“We’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim,” he told CBS News.
Underlining the lack of focus on democracy or desire to help long-backed opposition candidates to get power, Rubio told NBC it was “premature” to talk of new elections for Venezuela.
Muted streets
Maduro opponents in Venezuela have been wary of celebrating his seizure and extraction, and the presence of security forces seemed, if anything, lighter than usual on Sunday.
Despite the nervous mood, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out like a normal Sunday morning. Some citizens were stocking up on essentials.
“Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation caught me without food and I need to figure things out. After all, Venezuelans are used to enduring fear,” said a single mother in oil city Maracaibo, who said she bought rice, vegetables and tuna. “If this is necessary for my son to grow up in a free country, I’ll keep enduring the fear.”
The owner of a small supermarket in the same city said the business did not open on Saturday after US Special Forces swooped in on helicopters to seize Maduro after strikes on military installations in Caracas and elsewhere.
“Today we’ll work until noon since we’re close to many neighbourhoods — people have nowhere to buy food and we need to help them,” the shop owner said.
To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.
Machado was banned from standing in the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say overwhelmingly won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.
It is unclear just how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela and his focus on foreign affairs runs the risk of alienating some supporters who oppose foreign interventions.
While many Western nations oppose Maduro, there were many calls for the US to respect international law and resolve the crisis diplomatically. There were also questions over the legality of seizing a foreign head of state. Democrats said they were misled at recent Congress briefings and have demanded a plan for what is to follow.
The UN Security Council planned to meet on Monday to discuss the US attack, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a dangerous precedent. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticised the US.
Maduro was indicted in 2020 on US charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.
- STC leader Zubaidi skips flight to Riyadh, flees unknown.
- Presidential council strips Zubaidi of membership over treason.
- STC and Yemen government feud deepens amid armed clashes.
The leader of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC), Aidarous al-Zubaidi, failed to board a plane set to take him to Riyadh and fled instead to an unknown destination, the Saudi-backed coalition in the country said on Wednesday.
The remarks came amid efforts to end fighting that erupted last month between the STC and Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Zubaidi was set to travel to Saudi Arabia days after Yemen’s government said it had asked Riyadh to host a forum on the southern issue.
In a statement, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said a flight carrying a large number of senior leaders of the separatist group departed after a delay of more than three hours without Zubaidi, and with no information on his whereabouts.
During the delay, “information became available indicating that he had moved large forces,” Maliki added, citing “calls for mobilisation and the movement and arming of factions with light and medium weapons”.
The Houthis seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014 and Gulf countries intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognised government, splitting Yemen into rival zones of control.
The coalition also said it carried out limited pre-emptive airstrikes in Yemen’s southern province of al-Dhalea after monitoring the movements of armed forces that had left their camps.
Domestic sources and sources within the STC reported more than 15 strikes in the province, the birthplace of Zubaidi.
Following the developments, the presidential council stripped Zubaidi of his membership and referred him to the public prosecutor on charges including high treason, state news agency SABA said.
The decision, issued by council chairman Rashad al-Alimi, accused Zubaidi of inciting armed rebellion, attacking constitutional authorities and committing abuses against civilians in southern Yemen.
For years, the STC has been part of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
- Trump says agreed volume to supply is 30-50 million barrels.
- Exports expected to stem further cuts to Venezuelan output.
- US interior secretary says US Gulf refiners would take advantage.
HOUSTON/WASHINGTON: Caracas and Washington have reached a deal to export up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, a flagship negotiation that would divert supplies from China while helping Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.
The agreement is a strong sign that the Venezuelan government is responding to Trump’s demand that they open up to US oil companies or risk more military intervention. Trump has said he wants interim President Delcy Rodriguez to give the US and private companies “total access” to Venezuela’s oil industry.
Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage tanks that it has been unable to ship due to a blockade on exports imposed by Trump since mid-December.
The blockade was part of rising US pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that culminated in US forces capturing him this weekend. Top Venezuelan officials have called Maduro’s capture a kidnapping and accused the US of trying to steal the country’s vast oil reserves.
Venezuela will be “turning over” between 30 and 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to the US, Trump said in a social media post.
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!,” he added.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright is in charge of executing the deal, Trump said, adding that the oil will be taken from ships and sent directly to US ports.
Supplying the trapped crude to the US could initially require reallocating cargoes originally bound for China, two sources had told Reuters earlier on Tuesday. The Asian country has been Venezuela’s top buyer in the last decade, and especially since the United States imposed sanctions on companies involved in oil trade with Venezuela in 2020.
“Trump wants this to happen early so he can say it is a big win,” an oil industry source said.
Venezuelan government officials and PDVSA did not provide comment.
Chevron in control of Venezuelan oil flows to US
US crude prices fell more than 1.5% after Trump’s announcement, with the agreement expected to increase the volume of Venezuelan oil exported to the US.
That flow of oil is currently controlled entirely by Chevron, PDVSA’s main joint venture partner, under a US authorisation.
Chevron, which has been exporting between 100,000 and 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan oil to the US, is the only company that has been loading and shipping crude without interruption from the South American country in recent weeks under the blockade.
It was not immediately clear if Venezuela would have any access to proceeds from the supply. Sanctions mean PDVSA is excluded from the global financial system, its bank accounts are frozen, and it is blocked from executing transactions in US dollars.
Venezuela has been selling its flagship crude grade, Merey, at around $22 per barrel below Brent for delivery at Venezuelan ports, giving a value for the deal at up to $1.9 billion.
Rodriguez, sworn in as interim president on Monday, is herself under US sanctions imposed in 2018 for undermining democracy.
Talks involve possible auctions with US buyers
Venezuelan and US officials this week discussed possible sales mechanisms, including auctions to allow interested US buyers to bid for cargoes, and issuing US licenses to PDVSA’s business partners that could lead to supply contracts, two sources told Reuters.
Those licenses have in the past allowed PDVSA’s joint venture partners and customers, including Chevron, India’s Reliance, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and European Eni and Repsol, to have access to Venezuelan oil to refine or to resell to third parties.
This week, some of those companies have begun making preparations for receiving Venezuelan cargoes again, two separate sources said.
The US and Venezuela have also discussed whether Venezuelan oil can be used in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the future, one of the sources said. Trump did not refer to this possibility.
Increased oil flows would be ‘great news’
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Tuesday that an increased flow of Venezuelan heavy oil to the US Gulf would be “great news” for job security, future gasoline prices in the US and for Venezuela.
“Venezuela has an opportunity now to actually have capital come in and rebuild their economy and take advantage,” he told Fox News, when asked about talks between the governments on oil exports. “With American technology, American partnership, Venezuela can be transformed.”
US refineries on the Gulf Coast can process Venezuela’s heavy crude grades and were importing some 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) before Washington first imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela.
PDVSA has already had to cut production due to the embargo, because it is running out of storage for the oil. Without a way to export oil soon, it would have to cut production more, one of the sources said.
Oil traders reacted to news of the deal talks on Tuesday. Differentials for some heavy oil grades in the US Gulf slipped around 50 cents per barrel on Tuesday on the prospect of more Venezuelan supplies.
WASHINGTON: The White House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is discussing options for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the US military, in a revival of his ambition to control the strategic island despite European objections.
Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a US national security priority necessary to “deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” the White House said in a statement.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House said.
Greenland has repeatedly said it does not want to be part of the United States. Leaders from major European powers and Canada rallied behind the Arctic territory on Tuesday, saying it belongs to its people.
A US military seizure of Greenland from a longtime ally, Denmark, would send shock waves through the NATO alliance and deepen the divide between Trump and European leaders.
The strong opposition has not deterred Trump from reviewing how to make Greenland a US hub in an area where there is growing interest from Russia and China. Trump’s interest, initially voiced in 2019 during his first term in office, has been rekindled in recent days in the wake of the US arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Emboldened by Maduro’s capture last weekend, Trump has voiced his belief that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” and has put pressure on both Colombia and Cuba.
He has also started talking about Greenland again after putting it on the back burner for months.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Trump and his advisers are discussing a variety of ways to acquire Greenland.
Greenland for sale?
Those options include the outright US purchase of Greenland or forming a Compact of Free Association with the territory, the official said. A COFA agreement would stop short of Trump’s ambition to make the island of 57,000 people a part of the United States.
The official did not provide a potential purchase price.
“Diplomacy is always the president’s first option with anything, and dealmaking. He loves deals. So if a good deal can be struck to acquire Greenland, that would definitely be his first instinct,” the official said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that recent administration threats against Greenland did not signal an imminent invasion and that the goal is to buy the island from Denmark during a classified briefing late on Monday for congressional leaders, two sources familiar with the briefing said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Rubio’s comment.
Members of Congress, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, pushed back against the administration’s comments on Greenland, noting that NATO member Denmark has been a loyal US ally.
“When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honour its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, said in a statement.
Administration officials say the island is crucial to the US due to its deposits of minerals important for high-tech and military applications. These resources remain untapped due to labour shortages, scarce infrastructure and other challenges.
“It’s not going away,” the official said about the president’s drive to acquire Greenland during his remaining three years in office.
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