US says it will continue to dictate Venezuela’s decisions

At a press conference, Leavitt claimed that the Donald Trump administration is in direct contact with the Rodríguez regime and that Washington has “maximum influence” in these conversations.

“We continue to coordinate closely with the interim authorities and their decisions will continue to be dictated by the United States of America,” the spokeswoman said.

On Tuesday (6), Rodríguez, who assumed leadership of the Chavista regime after the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro by American forces on Saturday (3), said that “the Venezuelan government administers our country, no one else”. “There is no external agent governing Venezuela,” he claimed.

This Wednesday, American Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, said that the United States will control the sale of Venezuelan oil for an “indefinite” period of time and will deposit the money resulting from these transactions in accounts controlled by Washington.

“We are going to put the crude oil that is leaving Venezuela on the market, first this retained oil, and then, indefinitely, from now on, we will sell the production that leaves Venezuela on the market”, declared Wright at an energy conference of the financial group Goldman Sachs in Miami, according to information from the EFE agency.

The announcement was made after Trump reported on Tuesday night that Venezuela’s provisional regime will deliver up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States and that this product will be sold and the money will be controlled by the American president.

Today, the US government confirmed the seizure of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, formerly known as the Bella 1, and the Sophia, in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, respectively, amid the blockade of oil tankers leaving or arriving in Venezuela ordered by Trump in December.