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Trump's Venezuela oil move · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has said that he'll meet with oil refining
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: executives days after announcing that the U.S. would take a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: huge stake in Venezuela's oil reserves. The U.S. president announced
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the deal on Friday, saying it would give the U.S.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: majority control of 65 billion barrels of recoverable oil, which
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: he said would be used in part to replenish the U.S.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: 's strategic petroleum reserves. Venezuela has the world's largest proven reserves.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Its government has operated under intense pressure from the Trump
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: administration since U.S. forces kidnapped its longtime ruler, Nicolás Maduro,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: at the start of this year. Well, John D. Feely
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  Speaker 1: has a great insight into the region, having served in
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  Speaker 1: a number of diplomatic postings across Latin America, ending as U.S.
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  Speaker 1: ambassador to Panama. He's now executive director for the Center
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  Speaker 1: for Media Integrity of the Americas. Welcome to DW. As
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  Speaker 1: ever with this administration, there's a lot of detail missing,
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  Speaker 1: not least the identity of the U.S. company that will
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  Speaker 1: be given control of these vast amounts of Venezuela's untapped
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  Speaker 1: oil reserves. Why do you think that might be kept
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a secret?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think, Phil, because this latest announcement last Friday
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  Speaker 2: by the president just reaffirms a penchant that we've seen
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  Speaker 2: since the beginning of the second administration for a big,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: beautiful announcement in search of a substantive deal underneath. I
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  Speaker 2: think if you, you know, I'm thinking of the Gaza
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  Speaker 2: peace plan. I'm thinking of the Iran MOU back in June.
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  Speaker 2: Big announcements, a lot of, you know, sort of gaudy,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Versailles kind of trappings. But once you get
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: a couple of days, weeks, months out, There really isn't
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  Speaker 2: a lot of there there. And the second thing I think,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the reason that you haven't seen a lot of that
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  Speaker 2: detail is because this particular announcement smacks of desperation to me.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I think they're coming up on November. Oil prices and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: gasoline prices here in the United States remain above $ 4
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  Speaker 2: a gallon. And I think this was very much intended
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  Speaker 2: to have a political effect. But quite frankly, according to
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: most experts I've read, not much of a practical effect.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Really? So you think that there is nothing to this deal?
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  Speaker 1: That's interesting, because one of the names that has come
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  Speaker 1: up with regard to this deal is the man behind
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Venezuela's second largest private oil producer, Alejandro Betancourt López, whose
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  Speaker 1: family controls North American Blue Energy Partners. What can you
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  Speaker 1: tell us about him? and how this private company might
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  Speaker 1: fit into any deal concerning Venezuelan state oil interests.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a Venezuelan oil speculator. He's somebody who made
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  Speaker 2: a significant amount of money, if you're looking at the
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  Speaker 2: press only, by basically upcharging the Chavez government to bring
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  Speaker 2: in a significant amount of energy-producing hardware, oil turbines, things
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  Speaker 2: like that, over 15 years ago or so. Since then,
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  Speaker 2: he's taken a lot of those windfall profits, and he's
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  Speaker 2: mostly been on the run from tax authorities and financial
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: investigators in Spain, in Great Britain. If you follow some
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of the press that's been written about him recently, the
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  Speaker 2: American administration even had to go to Swiss prosecutors to
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  Speaker 2: ask them to drop a case they had looking into
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  Speaker 2: his financial impropriety. And I have no, obviously I have
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  Speaker 2: no knowledge of any of that, but the reporting on
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  Speaker 2: him and on North American blue energy partners is that
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  Speaker 2: they simply can't raise this kind of money. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: let's just do some basic arithmetic here for a second, Phil.
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  Speaker 2: And then math in public is always a little dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: 65 billion barrels of oil going to cost a hundred
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars of investment. Donald Trump says, Not a dime
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  Speaker 2: of that is going to come from taxpayers. So you've
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  Speaker 2: got to ask the question, is this Alejandro Betancourt going
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  Speaker 2: to raise that on his own? I think most investors,
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  Speaker 2: most investment committees and hedge funds or in sovereign wealth funds,
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  Speaker 2: kinds of places that normally put money into these ventures,
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  Speaker 2: if they've got a serious board of directors, they're going
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  Speaker 2: to need a lot more information before they even think
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  Speaker 2: about putting money into it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. So setting aside your skepticism, your deep skepticism about
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  Speaker 1: whether or not this deal will actually happen. If it happened,
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  Speaker 1: who do you think would be likely to benefit and
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  Speaker 1: who might lose from a deal like this?
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's start with the second. Who might lose from this?
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  Speaker 2: And this is, I think, a very important point that's
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  Speaker 2: obscured in a lot of the announcement and the mathematics
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: and the numbers floating around. The people who lose are
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  Speaker 2: the people of Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan Constitution in
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  Speaker 2: at least two articles, the petroleum reserves of the Venezuelan,
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  Speaker 2: of Venezuela, the physical territory of the sovereign state of Venezuela,
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  Speaker 2: belong to the Venezuelan people. Well, if this deal goes through,
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  Speaker 2: if there is some kind of a magic wand that
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  Speaker 2: produces maybe not $ 100 billion, but even let's say $ 50
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  Speaker 2: or $ 25 billion worth of investment, According to what's been announced,
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  Speaker 2: that belongs, that oil belongs now to the American people.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a serious problem. Since January 3rd, the President
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  Speaker 2: of the United States, when he ordered the takedown of
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Nicolas Maduro, you've heard his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,
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  Speaker 2: talk about a three-phase plan. The three-phase plan was they
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: were going to do stabilization, recovery, and transition. transition to
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: a democratic system of government in Venezuela, which is exactly
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  Speaker 2: what Exxon and ConocoPhillips and all the major oil companies want,
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  Speaker 2: because it gives you a better business climate, it gives
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  Speaker 2: you stability, etc. You know who has never, Phil, in
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  Speaker 2: all this time, mentioned those three words? President Trump. So
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  Speaker 2: there's a concern about the democratic future of the Venezuelan
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  Speaker 2: people as a result of last Friday's announcement.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so announcement last Friday, you think that there's nothing
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  Speaker 1: to it. People who might agree with you seem to
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  Speaker 1: be other governments in the region. The reaction to this
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  Speaker 1: news has been really, really muted. Nothing from Brazil, nothing
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  Speaker 1: from Colombia, nothing from Mexico. Do you think that's because
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  Speaker 1: they think, like you, that nothing's going to happen? Or
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: are they scared of pushback from the US?
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  Speaker 2: I think both of those are probably legitimate speculations as
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  Speaker 2: to why other major oil producers in the region haven't
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  Speaker 2: said anything. You know, again, let's go back to the
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  Speaker 2: Gaza peace plan. Let's go back to the Iran-MOU signed
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  Speaker 2: at Versailles Palace just in June. I think international observers
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  Speaker 2: have begun to recognize that perhaps as we head here
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  Speaker 2: domestically in the United States into November, the best tack
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  Speaker 2: they can take is just to stay quiet. Sort of
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  Speaker 2: whether you're a friend, an enemy, a or a frenemy
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  Speaker 2: of Donald Trump, when you see someone in freefall mode,
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  Speaker 2: there's really not much incentive to go after and try
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  Speaker 2: to prop him up or help him or align yourself
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  Speaker 2: with him. And I think that's what you're seeing the
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  Speaker 2: Latin American oil producers doing right now, just standing back
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  Speaker 2: and watching the show.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Delcy Rodriguez is only Venezuela's interim president. When the
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  Speaker 1: country's situation finally normalizes, could a future government... challenge this
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  Speaker 1: deal or even reverse it?
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny that you mentioned that, Phil, because
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  Speaker 2: we had this announcement on Friday, and I think it
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: was either Friday night or Saturday. One of the president's
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: very strong Cuban-American congressional supporters, a woman by the name
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  Speaker 2: of Maria Elvira Salazar, came out with a tweet that
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  Speaker 2: was on X, now we call it. Sorry, I dated
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  Speaker 2: myself there, but came out with a post that said,
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  Speaker 2: This was a terrible deal. She'd been a very strong
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  Speaker 2: defender of Maria Corina Machado and the Democratic opposition in Venezuela.
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  Speaker 2: And she basically said, this deal doesn't survive 2028 when
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump leaves office. Well, within about two hours, she
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  Speaker 2: took it down and replaced it with a very rah-rah
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  Speaker 2: cheerleading post, which very clearly means that somebody from the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: White House reached out to her and gave her a
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  Speaker 2: swift rap across the knuckles and said, hey, That's not
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  Speaker 2: the line. But the original post is exactly what I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of people, both in Venezuela and in
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  Speaker 2: the United States, are thinking, is that when President Trump
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  Speaker 2: leaves office, this deal will be as dead as anything
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  Speaker 2: else that he's proclaimed, such as a Gaza peace plan
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  Speaker 2: and resorts in Gaza.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for talking us through that so graphically, John. John D.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Feeley from the Center for Media Integrity of the Americas.