Summary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Trump administration soon would permit Venezuela to sell some oil currently subject to U.S. sanctions, with the revenue initially dedicated to basic government services. Rubio described the approach as an interim step after a U.S. raid earlier this month captured then-President Nicolás Maduro, saying the United States is working to influence Venezuela’s next steps through control over how oil money is used.
Rubio said the United States would retain control in the short term to ensure the revenue stabilizes Venezuela. He said Venezuela’s interim leaders would submit “a budget” every month of what they need funded, according to his remarks at the hearing. Rubio added that the proceeds would be deposited into an account that the U.S. could oversee and that the Treasury would control the process.
“The funds from that (oil sales) will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said. He also said Venezuela “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people,” while the U.S. Treasury would manage dispersal of funds rather than direct the underlying money flow itself.
Rubio said the administration is planning how to handle tens of millions of barrels of oil Venezuela is able to export, noting that Venezuela has the largest proven crude reserves in the world. He said Washington would not subsidize new oil industry investments in Venezuela and would only oversee the sale of sanctioned petroleum as part of what he described as a temporary bridge.
“This is simply a way to divide revenue so that there isn’t systemic collapse while we work through this recovery and transition,” Rubio said. He said the purpose is to reduce the risk of a breakdown in Venezuela’s capacity to provide services while the U.S. works through a broader recovery and transition plan.
Democrats and some Republicans on the committee pressed Rubio for details, with Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut asking for assurances that the oil revenue would be “fair and open” rather than structured to benefit oil companies allied with Trump. Murphy said, “You are taking their oil at gunpoint, you are holding and selling that oil … you’re deciding how and for what purposes that money is going to be used in a country of 30 million people,” adding he believed the plan was “destined for failure.”
Rubio responded by describing how he said Venezuela’s oil industry functioned under Maduro, saying the sector benefited corrupt leaders and countries such as China that purchased Venezuelan oil at a discount. Rubio said that under the country’s interim leadership, Venezuela’s government would be assisting the U.S. in seizing “illegal oil shipments.”
In addition to policing and health care, Rubio said U.S. instructions would limit how the interim Venezuelan leaders could spend the money and that Washington would conduct audits to ensure it was used as intended. He said Venezuela could use the funds to pay for policing or to buy medicine, describing the mechanism as designed to tie revenue to basic needs.
Rubio said the fund was initially set up in Qatar to avoid having the proceeds seized by American creditors and because of other legal complications, which he linked to the U.S. not recognizing Maduro’s government as legitimate. Rubio said hundreds of millions of dollars already have been set aside, and he said as much as $3 billion more is anticipated, describing an account that he said “belongs to Venezuela” but uses U.S. sanctions as a blocking mechanism.
Rubio also pointed to what Venezuelan officials have previously said about how oil-sale cash would be used. Earlier this month, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez said the cash from oil sales would flow into two sovereign wealth funds: one to support crisis-stricken health services and a second to bolster public infrastructure, including the electric grid.
The Associated Press reported that Venezuela’s hospitals are so poorly equipped that patients are asked to provide supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws, and that they also must pay for lab and imaging tests at private hospitals. On Tuesday, Rodríguez said during a televised event announcing upgrades to health care facilities that her government and the U.S. administration had established “respectful and courteous channels of communication” since Maduro was captured.
Neither Rodríguez nor her government’s press office immediately commented on Rubio’s remarks, the report said. At Rodríguez’s request, Venezuelan lawmakers last week began debating an overhaul of the country’s energy law, which the proposed changes aim to reshape in order to attract private foreign investment.