U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Venezuela would provide 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States at a market price, and he pledged to use proceeds from the sale “to benefit the people” of both countries.
Trump said the White House is organizing a meeting Friday with U.S. oil company executives to discuss Venezuela. Representatives of Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were expected to attend, according to a person familiar with the plans who requested anonymity to discuss them.
Earlier Tuesday in Venezuela, officials in Caracas announced that at least 24 Venezuelan security officers were killed in a dead-of-night U.S. military operation to capture President Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the United States to face drug charges.
Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s acting president, pushed back on Trump after he earlier this week warned she’d face an outcome worse than Maduro’s if she does not “do what’s right” and overhaul Venezuela to align with U.S. interests, including by granting access to American energy companies. Rodriguez, delivering an address Tuesday before government agricultural and industrial sector officials, said, “Personally, to those who threaten me: 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 said prosecutors would investigate the deaths as a “war crime,” without specifying whether that estimate was specifically referring to Venezuelans. Cuba’s government previously confirmed that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela were killed in the raid, and it said the personnel killed belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior.
The Pentagon said seven U.S. service members were also injured in the raid. Five had already returned to duty while two were still recovering, according to the Pentagon, and the AP report said injuries included gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries, citing a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The AP report said a video tribute to the slain Venezuelan security officials posted to the military’s Instagram account features faces of the fallen, American aircraft flying over Caracas, and armored vehicles destroyed by the blasts. The military wrote in an Instagram post, “Their spilled blood does not cry out for vengeance, but for justice and strength,” adding that it would not rest until it “rescue[s] our legitimate President” and “completely dismantle the terrorist groups operating from abroad,” according to the post.
Questions about the future of Venezuelan oil
With oil trading at roughly $56 a barrel, the transaction Trump announced late Tuesday could be worth as much as $2.8 billion, according to the AP report. The U.S. consumes an average of roughly 20 million barrels a day of oil and related products, so Venezuela’s transfer would be the equivalent of as much as two and a half days of supply, the AP report said, citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Despite Venezuela having the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, the country produces on average about one million barrels a day, the AP report said—significantly below U.S. average daily production of 13.9 million barrels a day during October. The press office for Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s announcement, the AP report said.
ExxonMobil is developing a large offshore oil deposit in waters off Guyana, the report said. The company’s major oil discovery in 2015 prompted Venezuela to revive a century-old territorial dispute with Guyana and take steps to annex the remote region known as Essequibo, which comprises about two-thirds of Guyana’s land mass, according to the AP report.
The development has also led to wide-ranging accusations from Venezuela’s government, including Rodriguez, against Guyana’s leaders and ExxonMobil, the AP report said. The report added that Venezuelan lawmakers even considered banning any future operation in Venezuela of oil companies working in Guyana two years ago.
U.S. political dispute and wider region
Trump also pushed back against Democratic criticism of the weekend military operation earlier Tuesday, noting that his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden had also called for the arrest of Maduro on drug trafficking charges, according to the AP report. The report said Trump made the argument during remarks before a House Republican retreat in Washington, while noting Biden-era actions including an increased award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
In 2020, the AP report said, Maduro was indicted in the United States accused in a decades-long narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking conspiracy. The AP report said a poll by The Washington Post and SSRS using text messages over the weekend found Americans were split on the capture: about 4 in 10 approved of the U.S. military being sent to capture Maduro, about the same share opposed, and about 2 in 10 were unsure.
The AP report said nearly half of Americans—45%—were opposed to the U.S. taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government, and about 9 in 10 said Venezuelan people should decide the future leadership. Maduro pleaded not guilty in a U.S. courtroom on Monday to federal drug trafficking charges, the report said.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife early Saturday in a raid on a compound where they were surrounded by Cuban guards, the AP report said. In the days since Maduro’s capture, the report said, Trump and top administration officials have raised anxiety around the globe that the operation could signal broader U.S. foreign-policy ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.
Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Rosa Villavicencio said Tuesday she would meet with the U.S. Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Bogota to present a formal complaint over threats the United States issued, according to the AP report. Villavicencio said she is hoping to strengthen relations with the United States and improve cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking, and she said: “It is necessary for the Trump administration to know in more detail about all that we are doing in the fight against drug trafficking.”
Meanwhile, the AP report said leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom on Tuesday joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty, saying “Greenland belongs to its people,” and that “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”