Venezuela’s Acting President says US unfreezing sanctioned funds
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Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez insists her country is not under US tutelage.
PHOTO: AFP
CARACAS – The US has started unblocking Venezuelan funds that were frozen due to sanctions, the South American country’s interim President said on Jan 27 in the latest sign of rapprochement between long-term foes.
Caracas has been under US sanctions, including an oil embargo, since 2019, following Nicolas Maduro’s first disputed claim to re-election the previous year.
During his first term, US President Donald Trump also froze Venezuelan funds in international accounts, which Maduro estimated in 2022 amounted to some US$30 billion (S$37.84 billion).
“We are unfreezing resources from Venezuela that belong to the Venezuelan people,” Ms Delcy Rodriguez, acting as president since Maduro’s toppling in a deadly US military operation
“This will allow us to invest significant resources in equipment for hospitals – equipment we are acquiring in the United States and in other countries.”
She did not specify the amount.
On Ms Rodriguez’s watch, various agreements have been struck between Washington and the interim Venezuelan regime.
“I reaffirm what President Donald Trump has said: That we have established channels of communication marked by respect and courtesy, both with the President of the United States and with Secretary (Marco) Rubio, with whom we are establishing a work agenda,” Ms Rodriguez said on Jan 27.
Ms Rodriguez has sought to improve ties with Mr Trump
This includes granting access to Venezuela’s vast oil resources.
Mr Trump has called Ms Rodriguez’s leadership “very strong” and said the US is already taking a cut of Venezuela’s oil.
She insists her country is not under US tutelage.
But Mr Rubio is to warn on Jan 28 that Ms Rodriguez risks the same fate as the deposed Maduro if she fails to comply with Mr Trump’s wishes.
Ms Rodriguez “is well aware of the fate of Maduro”, Mr Rubio is to tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to prepared testimony.
“It is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives,” the text read, with Mr Rubio also warning: “We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation.”
Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the US, with multiple American firms operating in the country until 2007.
Another change unfolded in Caracas last week, with the US confirming Ms Laura F. Dogu – a former ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras – as the new charge d’affaires to Venezuela.
That was seen as a step towards restoration of full diplomatic ties severed in 2019.
Venezuela’s Constitution mandates new elections if a president’s seat is declared vacant before half their term has expired.
Maduro was sworn in in January 2025.
His son, Congressman Nicolas Maduro Guerra, insisted on Jan 27 there was no legal provision for fresh elections in the case of a “kidnapping”, as he refers to his father’s fate.
“There is no clock running,” he told AFP in Caracas. “Elections are not on the table.” AFP
