President Donald Trump said “interim authorities” in Venezuela would sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “high quality” oil to the US at its market price.
“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
Trump said the money would be controlled by him as president, but would be used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.
Separately, the White House is organising an Oval Office meeting with oil company executives regarding Venezuela.
Representatives of Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the plans.
It comes after officials announced at least 24 Venezuelan security officers were killed in the dead-of-night US military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and move him to the United States to face drug charges.
Venezuelan officials announced the death count as the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, pushed back on Trump, who earlier this week warned she’d face an outcome worse than Maduro’s if she did not “do what’s right” and overhaul Venezuela into a country that aligns with US interests.
Trump said his administration would now “run” Venezuela policy and was pressing the country’s leaders to open its vast oil reserves to American energy companies.
“Personally, to those who threaten me,” Rodriguez said in an address before government agricultural and industrial sector officials. “My destiny is not determined by them, but by God.”
Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said overall “dozens” of officers and civilians were killed in the weekend strike in Caracas and that prosecutors would investigate the deaths in what he described as a “war crime”.
He didn’t specify if the estimate was specifically referring to Venezuelans.
In addition to the Venezuelan security officials, Cuba’s government had previously confirmed that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela were killed in the raid. The Cuban government said the personnel killed belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, the country’s two main security agencies.
Seven US service members were also injured in the raid, according to the Pentagon. Five have already returned to duty, while two are still recovering from their injuries. The injuries included gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries, according to a US official who was not authorised to comment on the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A video tribute to the slain Venezuelan security officials posted to the military’s Instagram page features faces of the fallen over black-and-white videos of soldiers, American aircraft flying over Caracas and armoured vehicles destroyed by the blasts.
Meanwhile, the streets of Caracas, deserted for days following Maduro’s capture, briefly filled with masses of people waving Venezuelan flags and bouncing to patriotic music at a state-organised display of support for the government.
“Their spilled blood does not cry out for vengeance, but for justice and strength,” the military wrote in an Instagram post. “It reaffirms our unwavering oath not to rest until we rescue our legitimate President, completely dismantle the terrorist groups operating from abroad, and ensure that events such as these never again sully our sovereign soil.”
Trump grumbles about how Democrats reacted to the raid
Trump pushed back against Democratic criticism of this weekend’s military operation, noting that his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden had also called for the arrest of the Venezuelan leader on drug trafficking charges.
Trump in remarks before a House Republican retreat in Washington grumbled that Democrats were not giving him credit for a successful military operation, even though there was bipartisan agreement that Maduro was not the rightful president of Venezuela.
In 2020, Maduro was indicted in the United States, accused in a decades-long narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
White House officials have noted that Biden’s administration in his final days in office last year raised the award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest after he assumed a third term in office despite evidence suggesting that he lost Venezuela’s most recent election.
The Trump administration doubled the award to $US50 million ($74.3 million) in August.
“You know, at some point, they should say, ‘You know, you did a great job. Thank you. Congratulations.’ Wouldn’t it be good?” Trump said.
“I would say that if they did a good job, their philosophies are so different. But if they did a good job, I’d be happy for the country. They’ve been after this guy for years and years and years.”
Trump’s latest comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials briefed leaders in Congress on the Venezuela operation amid mounting concerns that the Republican administration is embarking on a new era of US expansionism without consultation with lawmakers or a clear vision for running the South American country.
Democratic leaders said the session lacked clarity about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela. Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, said there was no dispute with Trump that Maduro was a “brutal dictator”.
“But the problem we have is the fact that yet again we have now entered into a war where there is no known off-ramp,” Duckworth said.
What US opinion polls show
Americans are split about the capture of Maduro — with many still forming opinions — according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and SSRS using text messages over the weekend. About 40 per cent approved of the US military being sent to capture Maduro, while roughly the same share were opposed. About 20 per cent were unsure.
Nearly half of Americans, 45 per cent, were opposed to the US taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government for the country. About 90 per cent of Americans said the Venezuelan people should be the ones to decide the future leadership of their country.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a US courtroom on Monday. US forces captured Maduro and his wife in a raid on a compound where they were surrounded by Cuban guards.
In the days since Maduro’s ouster, Trump and top administration officials have raised anxiety around the globe that the operation could mark the beginning of a more expansionist US foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere.
The president in recent days has renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of US security interests and threatened military action on Colombia for facilitating the global sale of cocaine, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble”.
Colombia responds to Trump
Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Rosa Villavicencio said she would meet the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Bogota to present him with a formal complaint over the recent threats issued by the United States.
On Sunday, Trump said he wasn’t ruling out an attack on Colombia and described its president, who’s been an outspoken critic of the US pressure campaign on Venezuela, as a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.
Villavicencio said she was hoping to strengthen relations with the United States and improve co-operation in the fight against drug trafficking.
“It is necessary for the Trump administration to know in more detail about all that we are doing in the fight against drug trafficking,” she said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty. The island is a self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark and thus part of the NATO military alliance.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”