Donald Trump does not set a deadline for ending US control of Venezuela and its oil resources. “I would say much more,” he stated when asked if his Administration will supervise the government of the Latin American country after deposing its leader, Nicolás Maduro, for three months, a year or more. “Only time will tell,” he stressed.
The Republican president, in an interview with The New York Times published this Thursday, has insisted that the interim government headed by Delcy Rodríguez “is giving us everything we consider necessary.” In this sense, he explained that his Administration maintains “very good” relations with the interim president.
“We will rebuild Venezuela in a very profitable way,” Trump has promised. “We are going to use oil. We are lowering prices and we are going to give money to Venezuela, which desperately needs it.”
His statements were recorded a few hours after Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, revealed a three-phase plan – stabilization, recovery and transition – to “manage” Venezuela. Also in the wake of the confession of the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, that Washington will maintain “indefinitely” control of Caracas’ oil.
Trump on Tuesday revealed a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that was stuck in the Latin American country due to the US blockade. Another sign of the coordination that Washington is promoting with the new Government of Delcy Rodríguez after the capture of Maduro last weekend.
“They are giving us everything we consider necessary,” said the Republican president in the interview with The New York Times in the Oval Office. However, he did not commit to setting a date for when to hold new presidential elections in Venezuela.
In fact, Trump did not want to answer journalists’ questions about why he chose to place Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s number two, as Venezuelan leader instead of supporting opposition leader María Corina Machado. “Frame [Rubio] talk to her [Delcy] often. “I will tell you that we are in constant contact with her and her administration.”
Machado, the new Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in an interview with the media The Patilla that Delcy Rodríguez’s leadership is “absolutely temporary” and insisted that his country is in a process towards “transition”: “And the objective is for it to be as short a process, absolutely as short and fast as possible.” He also pointed out that the Chavista regime is being given “instructions to dismantle itself.”
Trump also did not want to answer whether he would send US troops if Caracas prevents him from accessing Venezuelan oil or if Chavismo refuses to expel Russian and Chinese personnel, as his Administration has demanded. “I can’t say it, but they treat us with a lot of respect. We get along very well with the Government that is there right now.”
He also revealed his intention to travel to Venezuela in the near future: “I think at some point it will be safe.”