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President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a\u00a0\u201cblockade\u201d against oil tankers traveling\u00a0to or from the South American country that face American sanctions.<\/p>\n
Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a\u00a0pressure campaign\u00a0against leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, suggesting his administration\u2019s moves are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are\u00a0diverting away from Venezuela.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn\u2019t be going through,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cYou remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it \u2014 they illegally took it.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. oil companies dominated\u00a0Venezuela\u2019s petroleum industry\u00a0until the country\u2019s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the country\u2019s socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.<\/p>\n
While Venezuela\u2019s oil has long dominated relations with the U.S., the Trump administration has focused on Maduro\u2019s links to drug traffickers, accusing his government of\u00a0facilitating the shipment of dangerous drugs into the U.S.\u00a0In his social media post Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela was using using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.<\/p>\n
U.S. forces last week\u00a0seized an oil tanker\u00a0off Venezuela\u2019s coast amid a massive military buildup that includes the Navy\u2019s\u00a0most advanced aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n
The military also has carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed a total of at least 99 people, including four in a strike Wednesday. Those attacks have prompted questions from lawmakers and legal experts about their legal justification. Trump also has said he is\u00a0considering strikes on land.<\/p>\n
Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s deputy chief of staff, likened Venezuela\u2019s move to nationalize its oil industry to a heist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,\u201d Miller wrote on social media Wednesday. \u201cIts tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venezuela first moved to nationalize its oil industry in the 1970s, a process that expanded under Ch\u00e1vez, who nationalized hundreds of private businesses and foreign-owned assets, including oil projects run by ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. That led to the arbitration panel\u2019s 2014 order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a case that can be made that Venezuela owes this money to Exxon. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever been paid,\u201d economist Philip Verleger said.<\/p>\n
Trump blamed his predecessors for not taking a harder line against Venezuela over the asset seizures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn\u2019t watching,\u201d Trump said Wednesday. \u201cBut they\u2019re not going to do that again. We want it back. They took our oil rights \u2014 we had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chevron has a waiver from the U.S. government for oil production in Venezuela, and the Texas-based oil giant says its operations have not been disrupted.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s debt to Chevron \u201chas decreased substantially\u201d since the company\u2019s license to resume exporting Venezuelan oil to the U.S. was first granted in 2022, said Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston. He said the amount is not public.<\/p>\n
There was no change Wednesday to the\u00a0list of foreign terrorist organizations\u00a0after Trump said in his post that the \u201cVenezuelan Regime\u201d has been designated as one.<\/p>\n
Officials at several national security agencies were told not to take Trump\u2019s remarks about the designation literally and they should be treated as a figure of speech, according to a U.S. official involved in the discussions.<\/p>\n
That official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal interagency communications, also stressed that the \u201cblockade\u201d Trump announced applies only to previously sanctioned vessels against which certain actions are already authorized, such as the seizure last week.<\/p>\n
The State Department, which oversees the list, didn\u2019t respond to requests for clarification.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Justice Department in 2020\u00a0indicted Maduro\u00a0on narcoterrorism charges and U.S. authorities have alleged that Venezuela\u2019s leaders have profited from drug trafficking. Last month, the Trump administration designated a group linked to Maduro \u2014\u00a0the Cartel de los Soles\u00a0\u2014 as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
Maduro called United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday for a conversation \u201cregarding the current tensions in the region,\u201d U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the call, the secretary-general reaffirmed the United Nations\u2019 position on the need for member states to respect international law, particularly the United Nations Charter, exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability,\u201d Haq said.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yv\u00e1n Gil demanded in a letter to the U.N. Security Council, which was obtained by The Associated Press, that the U.S. immediately release the \u201ckidnapped crew\u201d and return the oil illegally confiscated on the high seas.<\/p>\n
In a second letter Wednesday, Venezuela\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada called for an emergency meeting of the U.N.\u2019s most powerful body to discuss \u201cthe ongoing U.S. aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing Trump\u2019s social media post, Moncada said, \u201cthis means that the U.S. government is claiming the world\u2019s largest oil reserves as its own, in what would be one of the greatest acts of plunder in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to urging the Security Council to condemn the taking of the tanker, Gil urged the U.N.\u2019s most powerful body for a written statement stating that it hasn\u2019t authorized actions against Venezuela \u201cor against the international commercialization of its oil.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the strikes on alleged drug boats have raised questions about the use of military force, Trump\u2019s seizure of the tanker and other actions against sanctioned entities are consistent with past American policy, said retired U.S. Vice Admiral\u00a0Robert Murrett, now a professor at Syracuse University.<\/p>\n
He also noted that from a military standpoint, seizing sanctioned oil tankers and imposing a blockade are far less risky than direct military confrontation.<\/p>\n
\u201cU.S. policy supports peaceful, democratic transition in Venezuela,\u201d Murrett said. \u201cIf Maduro agrees tomorrow to step down and have a free and open election, I think we\u2019d be delighted, Democrats and Republicans alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, Cathy Bussewitz in New York and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#oil #long #Trump #demands #Venezuela #return #seized #assets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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