Washington, Dec 17 (EFE).- White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Wednesday the United States created Venezuela’s oil industry and called Caracas’ 1976 nationalization «the greatest theft» in US history.
“American sweat, ingenuity, and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property,” Miller said.
“These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries, and drugs,” he added.
The Venezuelan oil industry was nationalized on Jan. 1, 1976, during the first presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez, and the rights to explore and exploit the country’s oil fields were reserved for the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
In 2007, President Hugo Chávez forced transnational companies to become minority partners in PDVSA or leave Venezuela.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he has declared the entire government of Nicolás Maduro a terrorist organization and has ordered the entry and exit of all oil tankers sanctioned by the United States from Venezuela to be blocked.
«Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger,» the president warned.
The blockade represents an escalation in Trump’s pressure on the oil sector in Venezuela, a country with the largest proven crude reserves in the world and highly dependent on this industry.
The move followed the seizure of an oil tanker leaving the South American nation last week.
The United States is also conducting an unprecedented operation in Caribbean waters, where it has destroyed some 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs, and is threatening to launch attacks «soon» inside Venezuelan territory against drug trafficking.
The Maduro government, which denies having links to drug trafficking, has urged its citizens to join citizen militias to defend the country and has condemned Washington’s recent actions against Venezuelan oil, calling them «theft.»
Despite the tension between Washington and Caracas, the US company Chevron operates in Venezuela in partnership with PDVSA thanks to a license from the Treasury Department that exempts it from the sanctions imposed on Venezuelan crude oil. EFEer/mcd
