The United States will allow Venezuela to sell oil that’s currently under American sanctions and use the proceeds to pay for basic government services
The Trump administration soon will allow Venezuela to sell oil now subject to U.S. sanctions, with the revenue initially dedicated to basic government services such as policing and health care and subject to Washington’s oversight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
The United States will retain control in the short term to ensure the oil revenue is used to stabilize Venezuela, Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
“The funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. Treasury would control the process. Venezuela, he said, “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”
Rubio offered new insight into how the U.S. is planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela, which has the largest proven reserves of crude in the world, and oversee where the money flows. After the U.S. raid that captured then-President Nicolás Maduro this month, the U.S. is working to influence the next steps in the South American country through its vast oil resources.
The U.S. will not subsidize oil industry investments in Venezuela, Rubio said, and is only overseeing the sale of sanctioned petroleum as an “interim step.
