US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to backtrack from President Donald Trump’s claim of ruling Venezuela, saying that the United States will not govern the day-to-day affairs of the country and would instead focus on enforcing an existing “oil quarantine”.
The US bombing in Venezuela, the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s subsequent claim of running the country had created ripples across the world on Saturday.
However, Rubio on Sunday suggested on US television talk shows that Washington’s plan was to gain leverage from its existing blockade on Venezuelan oil and regional military buildup to achieve its policy goals. He did not say that the US would directly rule Venezuela, a clear U-turn from Trump’s repeated statements over the weekend.
What is oil quarantine?
Marco Rubio’s public statements seemed designed to calm concerns that a US rule in Venezuela might lead it into another prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building.
An ‘oil quarantine’ essentially means a blockade on oil exports. In Venezuela’s case, it refers to US sanctions and naval interdictions imposed to halt the country’s oil exports, its key source of revenue.
“What’s going to happen here is we have a quarantine on their oil, that means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met, and that’s what we intend to do,” Rubio said on. ABC,
“That leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing and we expect that it’s going to lead to results here,” he said.
What did Marco Rubio say?
Rubio offered a more nuanced take, saying the US would continue to enforce an oil quarantine that was already in place on sanctioned tankers before Maduro was removed from power early Saturday and use that leverage as a means to press policy changes in Venezuela.
The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers “remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” he added.
What did Trump say?
Trump’s vow to “run” Venezuela, repeated more than half a dozen times at a news conference in Florida on Saturday, sparked concerns among some Democrats. It also drew discomfort from parts of his own Republican coalition, including an “America First” base that is opposed to foreign interventions, and from observers who recalled past nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Sunday, Trump reiterated that US oil companies are ready to go back to Venezuela to build there.
“We need big investments from the oil companies to bring back the infrastructure. The oil companies are ready to go and rebuild the infrastructure. We built it to start off with many years ago. They took it away. You can’t do that. You can’t do that with me,” he said.
