Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday slammed the US for claiming to indefinitely control her country’s oil wealth and dictate where profits can be spent. Rodriguez said any oil partnerships
with the US must benefit the people of her country.
Speaking during a live broadcast on state television VTV, Rodriguez said, “You all know that the energy greed of the North wants the resources of our country. All the falsehoods about drug trafficking, democracy, and human rights were the excuses.”
US President Donald Trump told the New York Times that the US is receiving full cooperation from Venezuela’s regime and will control the country and its vast oil reserves for years.
Trump’s statement came after Delcy Rodríguez defended plans to open up her country’s oil market to Washington.
“Only time will tell” how long the United States will oversee Venezuela, Trump said. When asked by the newspaper if it would be three months, six months, a year, or longer, Trump said, “I would say much longer.”
“We will rebuild it in a very profitable way. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need,” he added.
Rodríguez on Wednesday said that the US attack to remove her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, had put a “stain” on the countries’ relations, but that it was “not unusual or irregular” to trade with the US. She also added that Venezuela was “open to energy relations where all parties benefit”.
“The first thing I must say is that there is a stain on our relations that has never occurred before in our history. But it is also important to emphasise that the economic and trade relations between the United States and Venezuela are neither extraordinary nor irregular. 71% of Venezuelan exports are concentrated in eight countries, and of those, 25% are destined for the United States. Venezuela’s economic relations are diversified across various markets around the world,” she said, according to El Cooperante.
