CNN– The Trump administration has outlined a number of demands that Venezuela must agree to in order to resume oil production, two senior White House officials told CNN.
During conversations led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Trump administration told Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez that the country must cut ties with China, Iran, Russia and Cuba, and agree to partner exclusively with the US on oil production, the officials said.
Rodriguez must also agree to favor the Trump administration and US oil companies for future oil sales, they said.
ABC News first reported on the demands made to Rodriguez. It comes after the administration captured the country’s now-ousted President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend.
Sources familiar with the discussions said Trump officials believe Venezuela can only economically survive for another few weeks without relying on the sale of its oil reserves.
The demands also come as members of the Trump administration have told US lawmakers they have made clear to Venezuela that it must hold free and fair elections in the future, release political prisoners and get rid of the country’s drug gangs, according to source familiar with the administration’s briefing with key lawmakers this week.However, Rubio said that the administration’s most pressing demands focus on Caracas kicking out foreign adversaries, cooperating on oil sales and being more cooperative on counter-narcotics work, the source said.
In the briefing to lawmakers, Rubio made clear that the US has relayed the demands to the Rodriguez government. The officials also did not say whether Venezuela has agreed to them, though the administration remains confident that the massive military build up off the country’s coast serves as sufficient pressure on Rodriguez’s government, and that they have no choice but to acquiesce.
If Rodriguez cooperates, a senior White House official said the administration is open to reviewing its sanction policy against Caracas.Trump has privately told allies and his top officials that he wants Iran, Russian and China out of the Western hemisphere, sources familiar with the conversations told CNN. Pressuring Venezuela to stop doing business with them is the first and most important step, they added.
While the administration is still working on plans to extract a large amount of oil from the country to export to the US, in addition to formulating a strategy on how to rebuild Venezuela’s energy infrastructure, the administration understands that their goals will take time and resources. Stopping Venezuela from handing over its oil to foreign adversaries is the more immediate goal.
Trump is also expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday, according to a senior White House official.
Representatives from Chevron, the only US oil company currently active in Venezuela, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend, the official told CNN.
Other executives from US oil companies are also expected at the meeting.
The meeting comes after Trump posted on Tuesday that Venezuela’s interim government “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.”
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America,” he wrote.
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Remember the 10 MOU Gaston and his gang signed.
Keep in mind the inexplicable monstrous Chinese embassy compound in Antigua
Trump has privately told allies and his top officials that he wants Iran, Russian and China out of the Western hemisphere, sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.
Pressuring Venezuela to stop doing business with them is the first and most important steps.
You all wondering what you did to America why it’s treating you so bad
Yet there are many Chinese companies doing trillions of dollars with American companies.
Ivanka has several trademarks in China where several of her products are manufactured.
Chinese tech students are openly courted by the Trump administration to study at Americas top universities.
@face the truth.
Speak to these people, preach my brother.
All now these people still fighting their emotions, bout, oh, Trump hate black people and all that nonsense,and failed to see the direct connection to Antigua as to why he’s sanctioning Antiguan’s.
Well tell them the truth, because they are too afraid to face it.
It’s because of their “Compromised” leader who is in bed with America’s enemies.
” Friends to all and enemy to none” my back-foot. Pick a side, and make it loud and clear you jokers.
But GB did pick a side, and it was the Chinese and Venezuela, but he couldn’t say it loud and clear,because he knew he was caught with his hands in the Cookie jar, and that’s why he came up with this foolish rhetoric.
But tell these people the truth, I’ve been trying.
Gatson Browne is a two bit swindler, plain and simple, and the Chinese and Venezuela have been playing him for years, and Trump/CIA knows it.
@Face the Reality and the Truth – so he will be getting rid of the Chinese embassy in DC and the consulates in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston?
@Islanman26 so when Trump calls the Chinese leader his friend, he is being untruthful? Guy slavery days are over. A&B will work with the US but our ancestors will turn in their graves if we accept disrespect. Next move, rename Mount Obama, Mount Trump. No doubt he will fly in for the ribbon cutting
@Tennan
Welcome back. You missed the class on super powers in the 21 century. Or maybe you aren’t able to face the reality and the truth.
You also seem not to have been too observant when you were in Texas.
You should have been aware that Marco Rubio,: little Havana and little Caracas in and around Southern Florida were always about getting rid of Communism and leftist governments in LATAM.
Isn’t it ironic that Che Gevera the guerrilla leader who topple Batista enabling Cuba to turn to communism; was killed by the CIA in the jungles of Bolivia. Venezuela is known as the Bolivian Republic
The only reason why our ancestors are turning in their graves is because of Gaston Browne and his minions who are making Antiguans and Barbudans strangers in their own country.
The Chinese has commercial attaché offices in cities like Chicago with ten times the population of Antigua yet the Chinese Embassy compound is ten times the size of the Chicago embassy.
Gaston should probably house the Deportees in the outsized Chinese Embassy in Antigua
Demand this, demand that…..do this….do that……
It’s amazing how many will support Trump until it directly affects them and their way of life. Everyone is busy talking about the tyrant Maduro, and whether he is or he isn’t, what about the tyrant Trump.
The world will never forget the actions of the Americans who put him there and are now silent as he causes havoc. The American public is silent, congress is silent, the Supreme Court is now a pappyshow court, but the world will watch and wait and will never forget.
@ Face the Reality and the Truth
It’s funny how everyone’s truth is different. How can anyone pressure a sovereign country to do anything? When the Americans were doing business with the Mexican cartels to serve their own purposes, the truth was silent. When the Americans lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and justified a war and duped other countries in joining, where was the truth?
Why is the US telling others not to do business with certain countries, while they themselves are doing business with them? The hypocrisy of it all is absolutely astonishing I tell you.
Why are the Americans treating us so badly? I mean…if they can treat their fellow Americans so badly, what else should we expect?