My Marina Wide
HOUSTON/BEIJING, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Global oil prices fell on Wednesday as China denounced the U.S. as an aggressor after President Donald Trump’s administration said it had persuaded Venezuela to divert supplies from Beijing and import up to $2 billion worth of crude.
The deal was in line with Trump’s stated goal of controlling the South American OPEC member’s vast oil reserves after ousting its leader Nicolas Maduro, whom he has long portrayed as a drug-trafficking dictator with ties to Washington’s enemies.
Maduro’s Socialist Party allies remain in power in Venezuela, where interim President Delcy Rodriguez walks a fine line between denouncing his “kidnapping” and launching cooperation with the US under Trump’s explicit threats.
TRUMP: OIL MONEY “WILL BE CONTROLLED BY ME”
He said the US would refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of crude stuck in Venezuela under a US blockade as the first step in his plan to revive a sector in decline despite sitting on the world’s largest reserves.
“This oil will be sold at its market price and this money will be controlled by me as President of the United States of America to ensure that it is used for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump posted on Tuesday.
Venezuela has not confirmed the agreement.
Crude oil prices fell about 1.0% on global markets due to an anticipated increase in supplies.
The deal could initially require cargo to be diverted to China, Venezuela’s main buyer, as Caracas tries to offload millions of barrels stuck in tankers and storage.
“The United States’ wanton use of force against Venezuela and its demand for ‘America First’ when Venezuela is eliminating its own oil resources are typical acts of aggression,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a news conference.
“These actions gravely violate international law, gravely violate Venezuela’s sovereignty, and gravely harm the rights of the Venezuelan people.”
China, Russia and Venezuela’s leftist allies all denounced the US raid to capture Maduro over the weekend, which was Washington’s largest such intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama to oust Manuel Noriega.
Washington’s allies are also deeply unsettled by the extraordinary precedent of seizing a foreign head of state, with Trump making a series of threats of multiple actions – from Mexico to Greenland – to advance US interests.
DOZENS DIE DURING MADURO’S CAPTURE
Some details are still sketchy about how US special forces entered Caracas by helicopter on Saturday, smashing Maduro’s security cordon and trapping him at the door of a safe room without loss of American life.
Venezuela has not confirmed its total losses, although the military published a list of 23 dead and its ally Cuba said 32 members of its military and intelligence services had died. The US estimates about 75 deaths, the Washington Post reported.
Maduro, 63, who has ruled Venezuela since the 2013 death of his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez, pleaded not guilty to narcotics charges in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, where he was shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige clothing.
Trump appears to be calculating that it is better for Venezuela’s stability to work with Maduro’s senior allies for now. He emphasizes as a priority the revival of the oil sector with the help of American companies, not the release of political prisoners or a new vote for a democratic transition.
THE VENEZUELA OPPOSITION IS WAITING
Venezuela’s leading anti-Maduro figure, Maria Corina Machado, who went in disguise to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize in October, wants to return home, where she says the opposition would easily win a free vote.
But she is careful not to antagonize Trump, saying she would like to personally give him the Nobel prize he coveted and dedicated to her at the time. She says she fully agrees with his aspirations to make Venezuela a major US ally and the energy center of the Americas.
Banned from running in the 2024 election, Machado’s ally Edmundo Gonzalez won overwhelmingly, according to the opposition, the US and various election observers.
While working with Rodriguez and other top Venezuelan officials, the US has warned it must cooperate or risk sharing Maduro’s fate.
Hardline Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who controls security forces accused of widespread rights abuses, is under particular scrutiny, sources told Reuters.
The US is also closely monitoring Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who, like Cabello, is accused of drug trafficking from the US and has a multi-million dollar bounty on his head.
Rodriguez herself is subject to US sanctions, with her foreign financial assets identified as potential leverage, said a source briefed on the US administration’s thinking.
The United States is also pressuring the Venezuelan interim government to expel official advisers from China, Russia, Cuba and Iran, the New York Times reported.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Ros Russell)
