They criticize that Trump deposits resources from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil in Qatar

Washington. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright noted Thursday that his country is getting a 30 percent higher price for Venezuelan crude than the South American country was receiving before U.S. special forces kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

The information is known while criticism of Donald Trump’s government is beginning to emerge for having deposited the money from the first sale of Venezuelan oil by the United States – last Wednesday – in accounts fully controlled by the White House, the largest of them in Qatar.

Senior officials justified the decision to keep some of the proceeds in the Gulf state rather than in US banks by pointing out that it was a neutral location from which funds could be moved freely.

However, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, criticized the strategy, saying: “There is no legal basis for a president to open an account offshore that he controls in order to sell assets confiscated by the US military. “That is precisely a decision that would attract a corrupt politician.”

Furthermore, analysts pointed out that the fact that this money was sent to Qatar puts it out of the reach of Venezuela’s creditors, mainly China, because an account in either the United States or Venezuela could be the subject of litigation.

This is something that a US official cited by Semafor actually admitted. According to the official, Qatar is a neutral place where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of embargo.

Analyst Alejandro Grisanti, founding director of Ecoanalítico – a Latin American and South American consultancy that operates in Venezuela – defended that the Qatari banks that own the funds have been instructed to auction them to Venezuelan banks, prioritizing food, medicine and small businesses. That money will be collected by the Central Bank of Venezuela and allocated according to the requirements established by the United States, Grisanti added.

Meanwhile, several European partners of PDVSA, including Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom, have applied for licenses or authorizations in the United States to export oil from Venezuela, five industry sources told Reuters.

On the other hand, US forces in the Caribbean Sea yesterday seized another sanctioned oil tanker that, according to Washington, has links to Venezuela.