CARACAS — Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez insisted yesterday no foreign power was governing her country, even as US President Donald Trump announced Caracas will be swiftly turning over millions of barrels of oil to the United States.
Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.
Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas, Rodriguez said: “The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else.”
“There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”
Trump insists Washington is now “in charge” of the Caribbean country but has said he is prepared to work with Rodriguez—provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
The US leader was startlingly direct about his intent regarding the South American country’s reserves, announcing on his Truth Social platform late Tuesday that Rodriguez “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.
“This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me” as president, Trump said, adding that he has tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with “immediately” executing the plan.
No surrender
Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro’s capture.
“We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up,” she declared, paying tribute to the “martyrs” of the US attacks.
She said the country is holding seven days of mourning for those killed.
In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela’s military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.
Top ally Havana separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, many of whom were members of Maduro’s security detail.
Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of “dozens” of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.
