Marco Rubio announced the US plan for Venezuela during a conversation with journalists after a meeting on the subject in the Senate. As he noted, it first involves stabilizing the country, then reconstruction, which will consist in “providing American, Western and other companies with fair access to the Venezuelan market” and finally “transformation.”
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What is the US plan of action towards Venezuela?
How many barrels of oil does the US want to take from Venezuela?
What are the steps in Mark Rubio's plan?
What does the reconciliation process in Venezuela aim to achieve?
— At the same time, a national reconciliation process must begin in Venezuela so that opposition forces can be granted amnesty and released, released from various prisons and brought back to the country, so that we can begin to rebuild civil society, the US foreign minister added. He announced to provide further details soon.
Marco Rubio: we intend to seize from 30 to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil
Rubio noted that the process of selling Venezuelan crude oil by the United States would be a means of putting pressure on the authorities in Caracas.
— They can't take it out because of our blockade and sanctions. We intend to seize from 30 to 50 million barrels of oil. We will sell it on the market at market prices, not at the discounts with which Venezuela sold it, Rubio said.
— This money will then be distributed in a way that we control its distribution in a way that benefits Venezuelans, not corruption or the regime. So we have a lot of pressure to act on the stabilization front, he added. According to him, the Venezuelan authorities themselves wanted the US to sell the crude oil blocked by sanctions.
Confusion about next steps
Rubio rejected accusations made by opposition politicians that President Donald Trump's administration is “improvising” its policies.
However, participants in the meetings with the Secretary of State and the head of the Pentagon in Congress admitted to journalists that they were not sure whether the administration had a specific strategy for further steps towards Venezuela.
House Armed Services Committee deputy chairman Adam Smith, a Democrat, told reporters it was unclear to him whether the administration had the appropriate mechanism to pressure the regime in Caracas and that there was no “logistical path” to holding elections in Venezuela. Republican Don Bacon had similar concerns, saying the plan Rubia presented was vague and general. He admitted that he did not know how long US forces could maintain the blockade of Venezuela, which is to be the main means of putting pressure on the authorities in Caracas.
