President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Venezuela will hand over tens of millions of barrels of oil to the United States, just days after a US raid toppled the country's anti-American president, leaving a more cooperative leader in charge.
Trump said 30–50 million barrels of "high‑quality, sanctioned" Venezuelan crude will be shipped to US ports, with the revenue, perhaps more than $2 billion at current market prices, placed under his personal control.
It was not immediately clear whether Venezuela's new ruler, interim president Delcy Rodriguez, had agreed to hand over the oil, how the plan would work, or what its legal basis would be.
If confirmed, it would be the first major sign that Venezuela's new leader and her military-backed government were willing to meet an extraordinary set of US demands.
Venezuelan authorities did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Last Saturday, US special forces snatched president Nicolas Maduro and his wife from Caracas and whisked them to New York to face trial on drug charges.
Since then, Trump has said that the United States will "run" Venezuela and US companies will control its oil, the largest proven reserves in the world.
Interim president Rodriguez, a long-time member of Maduro's inner circle as vice president and energy minister, has vowed cooperation with the United States amid fears that Trump could pursue wider regime change.
Trump has warned that Rodriguez will pay "a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she does not comply with Washington's agenda, ceding control of the oil industry and weakening ties with Cuba, China, Iran and Russia.
But she has also, at times, sounded defiant and appeared shoulder-to-shoulder with hardliners that control the military, police and intelligence services.
"The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else", Rodriguez said Tuesday. "There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela."
Trump, by contrast, has claimed Washington is now "in charge" of the South American nation and has vowed a new doctrine of US dominance in the western hemisphere.
"Trump is unapologetically establishing a US Protectorate over a sovereign country and claiming to have a right over its resources" said former Venezuelan diplomat Alfredo Toro Hardy, describing it as "something not seen in Latin America for over a century".
Trump tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with "immediately" executing the planned transfer and sale of the 30-50 million barrels.
- No surrender -
Experts say that Rodriguez faces a difficult task to stay in power, balancing competing demands from Trump and government hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries.
Rodriguez has sought to project unity with powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, two hardliners seen as the main powerbrokers in the Maduro administration.
Since Saturday the security services have had a visible presence on the streets and Cabello has led thousands of Maduro supporters through Caracas demanding the s release.
Venezuela has yet to confirm the number of people killed in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and took them to the United States to face trial.
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's Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of "dozens" of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.
Rodriguez has declared seven days of mourning for those killed.
"We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up," she declared Tuesday, paying tribute to the "martyrs" of the US attacks.
- Cannot be trusted -
The White House has swatted aside the idea that Venezuela's democratic opposition, which is widely believed to have been the real victors in last year's elections, could take power.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, sidelined by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, said in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.
"She's the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors," Rodriguez told Fox News.
In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 16 journalists and media workers were detained in Venezuela on Monday, according to a journalists' union.
All were later released.
Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Maduro was a "violent guy" who "killed millions of people" and claimed that Rodriguez's administration was "closing up" a torture chamber in Caracas.
The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent -- which could happen after six months -- elections must then be held within 30 days.
By Javier Tovar, With Danny Kemp In Washington