Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday during her first state of the union address advocated for opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment, following the US’ pledge to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Rodriguez laid out a vision for Venezuela’s new political reality — one that challenges her government’s most deeply rooted beliefs less than two weeks after the US captured and toppled former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Under pressure from the US to cooperate with its plans for reshaping Venezuela’s sanctioned oil industry, Rodriguez declared that a “new policy is being formed in Venezuela.”
Photo: AFP
She urged the foreign diplomats in attendance to tell investors abroad about the changes and called on lawmakers to approve oil sector reforms that would secure foreign firms’ access to Venezuela’s vast reserves.
“Venezuela, in free trade relations with the world, can sell the products of its energy industry,” she said.
The administration of US President Donald Trump said it plans to control future oil export revenues to ensure it benefits the Venezuelan people.
Rodriguez said cash from the oil sales flow into two sovereign wealth funds, one to support crisis-stricken health services and another to bolster public infrastructure, much of which was built under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, and has since deteriorated.
While Rodriguez criticized the capture of Maduro and referred to a “stain on our relations,” she also promoted the resumption of diplomacy between the historic adversaries. Her succinct, 44-minute speech and mollifying tone marked a dramatic contrast to her predecessors’ fiery rants against US imperialism that often went on for hours.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy,” Rodriguez. “I ask that politics not be transformed, that it not begin with hatred and intolerance.”
The day before, she said the government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro’s harsh rule. However, human rights groups have verified just a fraction of the releases that she claimed took place.
Rodriguez delivered her speech as Venezuela’s Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado met Trump in Washington.
Since Maduro’s ouster, Trump has frozen Machado out of discussions about the nation’s political fate while embracing Rodriguez, praising Maduro’s long-time loyalist as a “terrific person” after holding his first known phone call with her on Wednesday.
Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump during their closed-door conversation.
Machado’s meeting with Trump received no coverage in Venezuela.
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