US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday said that it would dictate decisions to Venezuela’s interim leaders and control the country’s oil sales “indefinitely” after toppling Nicolas Maduro as president of the South American nation.
Trump’s assertion of US dominance over Venezuela comes despite Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez saying there is no foreign power governing Caracas.
“There is a stain on our relations such as had never occurred in our history,” Rodriguez said about the US raid to depose her predecessor.
Photo: AFP
US military forces snatched Maduro and his wife on Saturday in a lightning raid and whisked them to New York to face trial on drug charges.
“We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now” following the capture operation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing. “We’re continuing to be in close coordination with the interim authorities and their decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America.”
Washington is looking at long-term control of Venezuelan oil exports, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said.
“We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed-up stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela,” Wright said.
Washington also seized two oil tankers, including a Russian-linked vessel that it pursued from Venezuela to the north Atlantic.
Moscow condemned the operation, but Leavitt said that the oil tanker had been “deemed stateless after flying a false flag.”
Separately, Trump said on social media that he was seeking a US$500 billion increase in annual defense spending, while vowing to cut out some companies poised to profit the most from the boost.
Major defense contractors that work with the government must end stock buybacks, stop issuing dividends and cap executive pay at US$5 million a year until they invest more in factories and research to speed development, Trump said, singling out RTX Corp.
Raytheon, the name of RTX’s defense unit, would “no longer be doing business with [the US] Department of War [Defense]” unless it “steps up” with more upfront spending on plants and equipment, he said.
An RTX spokesperson declined to comment.
Trump later signed an executive order codifying the decision.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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