US involvement in Venezuela could last years, Trump says

US President Donald Trump has said that his country’s involvement in Venezuela could last for years.

He told the New York Times that “only time will tell” how long his administration would “oversee” the running of the South American nation following the seizure by US forces of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a raid on Saturday.

Trump also did not say if or when elections would be held in Venezuela to replace the interim government headed by Maduro loyalist Delcy Rodríguez.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said the ouster of Maduro had set off an “irreversible process” that would lead Venezuela to be “free”.

New York Times (NYT) journalists quizzed Trump on his plans for the future of Venezuela days after he had said his administration would run the oil-rich nation.

Earlier on Wednesday, the White House had said that the US would control sales of sanctioned oil “indefinitely”.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued that the US needed control over Venezuela’s oil sales for leverage over the interim government in Caracas.

Trump said his administration would be “taking oil” from Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven reserves, but acknowledged it would “take a while” to get the country’s oil industry up and running.

Venezuela’s oil production has plummeted as a result of mismanagement on the part of the Maduro government and that of his predecessor, as well as years of US sanctions.

Trump told the NYT that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “in constant communication” with Rodríguez, who was designated as Venezuela’s interim leader by the country’s Supreme Court, which is dominated by Maduro loyalists.

He added that Rodríguez is “giving us everything that we feel is necessary.”

The US president had earlier said that the interim government had agreed to use the proceeds from the sale of its oil to buy only US-made goods.

According to the NYT reporters, Trump did not answer their questions about why he recognised Rodríguez as Venezuela’s new leader.

Many Venezuela analysts had expected that the ouster of Maduro would be followed swiftly by the return to the country of opposition leaders Edmundo González and María Corina Machado.

But in his first news conference following the US raid, Trump was dismissive about Machado, alleging that she lacked the “respect” and support to lead Venezuela.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” he said.

Machado managed to unite opposition groups behind her ahead of the 2024 presidential election but was barred from running for the presidency by officials loyal to the Maduro government.

She then threw her weight behind former diplomat González, who acted as her proxy.

The electoral council, which is also dominated by government loyalists, declared Maduro re-elected. However, voting tallies collected by the opposition, which have been independently verified, suggest González won by a landslide.

González went into exile to escape the government repression that followed the election, and Machado went into hiding within Venezuela.

She embarked on a perilous journey by land, sea and air to reach Oslo in December to collect the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” in Venezuela.

Her current whereabouts are unknown but she has said that she plans to return to Venezuela soon.

In an interview with Venezuelan opposition news site La Patilla, she insisted that the ousting of Maduro had set her country on an irreversible path towards freedom.

She said that she hoped this new phase of the transition process would be “as short and swift as possible”.

She added that the interim government, which she said was “the same regime it was under Maduro” was “being given instructions to dismantle itself”.

Machado insisted that González was the legitimate president-elect and urged that his mandate be respected.

She stressed that “the first thing” that needed to happen was for the political prisoners to be released.

Machado is not the only one who has been demanding that the more than 800 political prisoners held in Venezuela’s notorious jails be freed.

On Wednesday, Republican lawmaker María Elvira Salazar published several posts on social media insisting they be released “immediately”.

However, in his interview with the NYT, Trump instead “appeared far more focused on the rescue mission than the details of how to navigate Venezuela’s future”, according to the journalists who spoke to him.

Pressed on what the US plans for Venezuela are, he said that “we will rebuild it in a very profitable way”.

He added: “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”

The US president is expected to meet representatives of three of the largest US oil companies at the White House on Friday to discuss those plans further.