(AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Friday he called off a second wave of attacks on Venezuela after the government, whose leftist president was removed by Washington, began releasing prisoners. Trump made the comments as he prepared to meet major oil corporations that he said will invest at least $100 billion in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves.
Trump was implicitly making clear he is ready again to use force to get his way in Venezuela, which he has vowed to force to enrich the United States, especially oil companies. “Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of ‘Seeking Peace,'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks,” he said. The United States on Friday also announced that it had seized another tanker near Venezuela as it enforces an embargo on its oil, which makes Washington the undisputed power on its key export.
Venezuela began releasing prisoners on Thursday in the first such gesture since US forces removed and detained president Nicolas Maduro in a deadly January 3 raid, with his deputy Delcy Rodriguez taking over. Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez — who opposed Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election — was among those released Thursday. “It’s all over now,” Marquez said in a video taken by a local journalist of him and his wife, accompanied by another released opposition member, Biagio Pilieri.
The White House quickly took credit for winning the prisoners’ freedom. Trump had earlier played down democracy as a motivating factor for the attack, despite years of the United States saying that Maduro was illegitimate and elections were filled with fraud. But Trump said he would meet next week with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whom he earlier brushed aside as a “very nice woman” who lacked the “respect” to lead Venezuela. “I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview. Trump had earlier voiced jealousy that Machado won the latest Nobel Peace Prize and said he deserved it. She has responded by dedicating it to him.
Interim leader Rodriguez’s brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, said “a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals” were being immediately freed for the sake of “peaceful coexistence.” Renowned Spanish-Venezuelan activist Rocio San Miguel was among five Spanish citizens freed, according to Spain’s foreign ministry. She was imprisoned since February 2024 over a purported plot to assassinate Maduro, which she denied. On Tuesday, Trump had told Republican lawmakers that Rodriguez’s administration was closing a “torture chamber” in Caracas but gave no further details. Venezuelan rights NGO Foro Penal estimates over 800 political prisoners are in the country’s jails.
Maduro was seized in a special forces raid accompanied by airstrikes, operations that left 100 people dead, according to Caracas. US forces took Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to New York to face trial on drugs charges. Trump said the United States would “run” the Caribbean country for a transitional period and tap into its oil reserves for years. Delcy Rodriguez insisted Thursday her country was “not subordinate or subjugated.” “Nobody surrendered. There was fighting for the homeland” when the US forces attacked, she said during a ceremony for the Venezuelans killed.
Trump announced a plan earlier this week for the United States to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, with Caracas then using the money to buy US-made products. On the streets of Caracas, opinions were mixed. “I feel we’ll have more opportunities if the oil is in the hands of the United States than in the hands of the government,” said Jose Antonio Blanco, 26.
burs-sct/md – Andrea Tosta with Shaun Tandon in Washington
© 2024 AFP
