Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez claims U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil industry will jumpstart the country’s floundering economy, but is that really true?
The U.S. deal to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves comes nine months after the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid on Caracas.
"It’s clear that this is not a deal that any Venezuelan government would have entered into unless this country had been subject to an invasion, and unless its authorities had been held at gunpoint. So, I think we’ve replaced gunboat diplomacy now for gunpoint diplomacy," says Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez claims U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil industry will jumpstart the country’s floundering economy, but is that really true?
The U.S. deal to take majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves comes nine months after the U.S. military abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a raid on Caracas.
"It’s clear that this is not a deal that any Venezuelan government would have entered into unless this country had been subject to an invasion, and unless its authorities had been held at gunpoint. So, I think we’ve replaced gunboat diplomacy now for gunpoint diplomacy," says Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez.
