Maduro accuses US of plot to seize Venezuela’s oil

(Daily Express) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday wrote a letter to the Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) condemning a “campaign of harassment” by United States President Donald Trump, stating that the US intends to seize the country’s vast oil reserves.

Maduro stated that he will not succumb to blackmail or threats and that the country will firmly defend its oil resources.

Maduro’s letter to OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais was shared by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on social media yesterday.

In it, Maduro writes of threats by Trump against the country, including the deployment of US warships and troops in the region.

“Venezuela formally denounces before OPEC and the OPEC+ mechanism the intention of the Government of the United States of America to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the largest on the planet, through lethal military force against the country’s territory, people, and institutions,” Maduro wrote.

“This intention not only contravenes provisions that promote peaceful coexistence among nations but also endangers the stability of Venezuelan oil production and the international market. The world is well aware of the harmful consequences that military interventions by the United States and its allies have generated in other oil-producing countries,” he said.

Meanwhile, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez yesterday compared an order given by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as reported by the Washington Post to “kill all” drug traffickers on board the first vessel blown up by US forces in September to those made by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in the aftermath of that strike.

Rodriguez made the comparison during a news conference yesterday in Caracas while announcing the Post’s report claimed Hegseth had given a spoken directive to “kill everybody” as US military officials spotted the vessel believed to be ferrying drugs with 11 on board.

The Pentagon declined to comment on this order, according to the Post, chief spokesman Sean Parnell stating that the narrative was “completely false”.

The US has since carried out 21 strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80.

During his news conference, Rodriguez said the Post’s reporting had triggered the establishment of a special commission that would be done today during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly. This commission, he said, would involve the office of the Venezuelan Attorney General, so that it may take action regarding crimes committed against Venezuelans in the Caribbean Sea.

The Assembly, he said, would also request a meeting with the Venezuelan government and the government of the Sucre State to establish strategies to support the families of Venezuelans killed in the strikes, some of whom, he said, had been receiving threats.

He said the commission would aim to determine how many Venezuelans were killed. He said it was known that foreigners, including those from Trinidad and Tobago, were among those killed. Citing the Prime Minister’s September statement in the aftermath of that first strike which killed 11, in which she praised the US presence and called for all drug traffickers to be killed violently, he said, “Trinidadians have been killed. The same Prime Minister of Trinidad who said that they needed to be exterminated, that they needed to all be killed, seems to be using a similar phrase, and it turns out there are Trinidadians among the dead who have the same right to life and due process as every human being.”

He said that the strikes constituted extrajudicial executions and that no human being should be killed without determining their involvement in a criminal act.

“And if there were fishermen there, if there were students there, if there were people who worked in Trinidad and Tobago, or people who worked in another part of Venezuela and happened to be on one of those boats, we will never know. Because if anything should characterise humanity at this stage of human existence, it’s that we all have the right to life, we all have the right to due process, and to have any alleged crime clarified by judges, by courts with prosecutors and defence attorneys present,” said Rodriguez.

The announcement came one day after US President Donald Trump issued a warning to airlines flying over Venezuelan airspace, urging them to avoid the airspace above and around Venezuela.

In a post to TruthSocial he stated, “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”